Sentiment analysis uses software to work out whether a piece of text sounds positive, negative or somewhere in between.
In plain words
Reading thousands of reviews or comments by hand is slow. Sentiment analysis sorts text by the opinion it expresses. The result can be a simple like or dislike, or a finer scale such as one to five stars, and it is a common type of text classification.
A quick example
A university collects written feedback from students about a course. Sentiment analysis marks each comment as positive or negative, and the overall picture shows whether students mostly liked the course, without anyone reading every comment by hand.
Where you'll meet it
- Sorting product reviews and support messages.
- Tracking how people feel about a brand or topic.
Related
Sources
- Docssentiment analysis, Google Machine Learning Glossary · read 29 Sept 2026
- DocsText classification guide, Google for Developers · read 29 Sept 2026
Checked by WhatIsAI against the sources above · 29 Sept 2026. Spotted an error? Report it.