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Word Counter

Paste or type your text and the counts update on every keystroke: words, characters, sentences, paragraphs and an estimated reading time. Nothing is sent anywhere, so a draft stays a draft.

Words

0

0 characters

Sentences

0

Paragraphs

0

Without spaces

0

Reading time

0

Sentence count is approximate: an abbreviation such as "Dr." ends in a full stop and is counted as a sentence break.

What counts as a word

A word here is a run of characters separated by spaces, which is the definition Microsoft Word and Google Docs use. That matters more than it sounds: it is the count your teacher, your editor or your form is checking against, and a tool that disagrees with them is wrong for the purpose you have in hand.

The alternative is the Unicode word rule, and it gives different answers exactly where it hurts. It treats the hyphen as a word boundary, so "a well-known fact" becomes four words instead of three, and "dou-lhe" becomes two. Anyone writing to a 500-word limit would be penalised for hyphenating. It also drops emoji and currency symbols for not being word-like, so items you can see on screen vanish from the count.

Reading time uses 200 words per minute, the middle of the measured range for silent reading of prose in adults. It is an estimate, and a technical text with tables reads slower than a story. The number is stated rather than hidden so you know where it came from.

Sentence count is approximate by nature. A sentence ends in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, and an abbreviation such as "Dr." ends in a full stop without ending a sentence. Getting that right needs a dictionary of abbreviations per language, which would be larger than this whole tool. The count is labelled approximate instead of pretending otherwise.

Frequently asked questions

Is "well-known" one word or two?

One, in this counter and in Microsoft Word. The Unicode word-breaking rule says two, because it treats the hyphen as a boundary. We follow Word because that is the count your word limit is measured against.

How long does it take to read 500 words?

About two and a half minutes at 200 words per minute, the rate used here for silent reading of prose. Dense or technical material runs slower, and a familiar story runs faster.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. The counting happens in your browser and the text never leaves your device. There is no upload, no server call and nothing stored.

Why does the sentence count look too high?

Almost always an abbreviation. "Dr. Silva arrived" counts as two sentences because the full stop after "Dr." looks identical to the one that ends a sentence. The count is approximate for this reason.

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