---
title: "Liquid filters: truncatewords"
description: Truncates a string down to a given number of words.
api_name: liquid
source_url:
  html: https://shopify.dev/docs/api/liquid/filters/truncatewords
  md: https://shopify.dev/docs/api/liquid/filters/truncatewords.md
---

# truncatewords

```oobleck
string | truncatewords: number
```

returns [string](https://shopify.dev/docs/api/liquid/basics#string)

Truncates a string down to a given number of words.

If the specified number of words is less than the number of words in the string, then an ellipsis (`...`) is appended to the truncated string.

***

Caution

HTML tags are treated as words, so you should strip any HTML from truncated content. If you don't strip HTML, then closing HTML tags can be removed, which can result in unexpected behavior.

***

```liquid
{{ article.content | strip_html | truncatewords: 15 }}
```

## Output

```html
We've all had this problem before: we peek into the potions vault to determine which...
```

### Specify a custom ellipsis

```oobleck
string | truncatewords: number, string
```

You can provide a second parameter to specify a custom ellipsis. If you don't want an ellipsis, then you can supply an empty string.

```liquid
{{ article.content | strip_html | truncatewords: 15, '--' }}


{{ article.content | strip_html | truncatewords: 15, '' }}
```

## Output

```html
We've all had this problem before: we peek into the potions vault to determine which--


We've all had this problem before: we peek into the potions vault to determine which
```