Word Counter
Words
0
- Characters
- 0
- No spaces
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
- Reading
- 0 sec
- Speaking
- 0 sec
- Unique words
- 0
- Pages
- 0
Readability (estimate)
Write a full English sentence to score it.
In short
How the Word Counter works
A word counter splits text into words and counts them along with characters, sentences, and paragraphs. This one counts a word as a run of letters or numbers, keeping apostrophes and hyphens inside words, and counts each CJK character as one word. Reading time assumes 238 words per minute; speaking time assumes 140.
Guide
How words are counted
Different word counters disagree at the edges, so here is exactly what this one counts. The examples below each count as the number of words shown.
| Text | Words | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| don’t stop | 2 | Apostrophes stay inside a word |
| mother-in-law | 1 | Hyphens between letters join a word |
| 3.14 and 1,000 | 3 | Decimal points and thousands separators stay inside numbers |
| Hello 👋 world | 2 | Emoji and symbols are characters, not words |
| 你好世界 | 4 | Each Chinese or Japanese character is one word |
| well — maybe | 2 | Dashes with spaces around them separate words |
Characters are counted the way you see them, so an accented letter or an emoji with a skin tone counts as one character. Sentences end at ., !, ?, or … followed by a space, and at 。！？. Abbreviations such as “e.g.” can add an extra sentence. Paragraphs are separated by a blank line.
Guide
How reading time and pages are estimated
| Estimate | Assumption |
|---|---|
| Reading time | 238 words per minute (average adult silent reading, non-fiction) |
| Speaking time | 140 words per minute (a steady presentation pace) |
| Pages, single spaced | 500 words per page |
| Pages, double spaced | 250 words per page |
Guide
What do the readability scores mean?
Flesch Reading Ease runs from about 0 to 100: higher is easier, and 60–70 is plain English. The Flesch–Kincaid grade estimates the US school grade needed to follow the text. Both use average sentence length and syllables per word. Syllables are estimated from vowel groups, so treat both scores as a guide for English text, not a precise measurement.
Guide
Why does my count differ from Microsoft Word or Google Docs?
Word processors make their own choices about dashes, numbers with units, URLs, and footnotes. Small differences of a word or two per page are normal. If you need an exact match for a submission, use the counter the submission rules name.
With documents
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How do I count the words in my text?
Type or paste into the box. The counts update on every keystroke; there is nothing to submit.
What is the difference between words and characters?
Words are whole units of text separated by spaces or punctuation. Characters are every letter, number, space, and symbol. Many social posts and meta descriptions are limited by characters, while essays are usually limited by words.
How is reading time calculated?
Word count divided by 238 words per minute, the average silent reading speed for adults reading non-fiction. Speaking time uses 140 words per minute.
What is keyword density?
How often a word or phrase appears, as a percentage of all words. Common stop words such as “the” and “and” are left out of the single-word list so the useful terms stand out.
Why does my count differ from Microsoft Word?
Counters treat hyphens, numbers, URLs, and symbols differently. Word counts “e-mail” as one word and splits some symbol runs differently. Our method is documented on this page so you can see exactly what is counted.
Is my text uploaded?
No. Counting happens in your browser and the text is never sent to PurePDF. Autosave is off by default; if you turn it on, the draft is stored only in this browser and you can clear it at any time.
Sources
Method and review
The method is described on this page and every result shows how it was reached. Last reviewed by the PurePDF team. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
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