Highlight Patterns in Text

Trying to spot certain words or phrases in a big block of text? The Highlight Patterns Tool helps you do that instantly. Just type or paste your content, enter a list of patterns to match, and see them highlighted in real time.

Whether you’re proofreading, cleaning logs, or scanning transcripts, this tool gives you quick visual feedback without needing to search line-by-line.

Paste your input above or import a file below.
No file chosen
Supported file type: text/plain (.txt)
Total lines: 0
Options
Use regex
Case sensitive

How to Use the Tool:

  1. Paste or type your text into the Input Text box.
  2. In the pattern field, enter the word or expression you want to highlight.
  3. Optional settings:
    • Enable Use regex to enter a regular expression pattern.
    • Enable Case sensitive to match exact casing.
  4. Click Highlight to apply the match.
  5. The Highlighted Output box will show matches wrapped in a yellow highlight.
  6. Use Copy Output to copy the result as plain text (without formatting).
  7. Click Clear All to reset the tool.

What Highlight Patterns Tool can do:

This tool takes your input text and highlights matches based on the patterns you provide. If you’re using regular expressions, it’ll treat your input as a pattern perfect for developers or advanced search cases.

When regex is off, the tool treats your patterns as literal words or phrases. It automatically escapes any special characters to prevent false matches. You can combine multiple terms like hello, test, world, and they’ll all get highlighted.

Toggle case-sensitive if you want to match “Test” but not “test.” Otherwise, it defaults to case-insensitive.

Everything is processed in the browser, and you can copy the result as plain text or download it for later use.

Example:

Input:

Hello world! This is a test.
Another line with test word.

Pattern:

test

Options:

  • Use regex: disabled
  • Case sensitive: disabled

Output:

Hello world! This is a <mark>test</mark>.
Another line with <mark>test</mark> word.
(highlighted visually in the browser)

Common Use Cases:

Use the Highlight Patterns Tool to highlight multiple patterns in text at once with custom colors. Apply simple word matching or advanced regular expressions. Customize case sensitivity, visualize matched patterns instantly, and export clean highlighted or plain versions. Perfect for highlighting important terms, phrases, or repeating structures inside large text blocks.

Useful Tools & Suggestions:

If you’re trying to highlight patterns, Find Patterns in Numbers is a solid companion especially if your text includes numeric sequences you want to analyze or visualize. And Censor Words in Text can be useful too if you’re flagging certain repeated phrases and want to obscure them after spotting a pattern.

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