Word counter

What gets counted

Wordsare tokens separated by whitespace. Hyphens and apostrophes don't split a word: “mother-in-law” and “don't” each count as one. Characters include every letter, digit, punctuation mark, and space. The “no spaces” row drops whitespace and tabs only — punctuation still counts.

Sentencesare segments ending in a period, exclamation point, or question mark. Abbreviations like “Dr.” or “e.g.” can produce minor false splits — the result is a close approximation, not a parse. Paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a blank line.

Reading and speaking time

Reading speed for adult fiction is typically 200–300 words per minute. We default to 240 wpm (the median for comfortable comprehension), with toggles for slow (180 wpm, dense technical material) and fast (320 wpm, a skim). Speaking time uses 130 wpm — a comfortable presentation pace with breaths and emphasis. Auctioneers hit 250+ wpm; voicemail greetings are under 100.

Why writers obsess over counts

Constraints sharpen writing. A 280-character tweet forces a single idea. A 160-character meta description has to earn the click in roughly the length of a long sentence. A 650-word college essay won't survive with five themes — it has to commit to one. The counter at the bottom of this page tracks the most common limits so you know when you're close, and how far over you are.

Unique words and lexical density

The unique-words count is the number of distinct lowercase word-forms (so “Run” and “run” collapse). Dividing unique words by total words gives a rough lexical diversity score. Casual conversation tends to score 30–40%, literary writing 50–60%, technical writing higher. A low score on a long passage is a hint to hunt for repeated phrases.