Multimap<String, Integer> wordMap = ArrayListMultimap.create(); String[] words = bookText.split(" "); for (int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) { wordMap.put(words[i], i); } Collection<Integer> positions = wordMap.get("Java"); Set<String> uniqueWords = wordMap.keySet(); for (String word : uniqueWords) { int count = wordMap.get(word).size(); }