Word Counter

Any sequence of characters separated by whitespace counts as one word. That means hyphenated phrases like "state-of-the-art" and contractions like "don't" each count as a single word, matching how Microsoft Word and Google Docs tally text.

The calculator uses 250 words per minute, a commonly cited average for adult silent reading of general prose. Technical content or dense material typically lands closer to 150-200 wpm, while skimming can exceed 400 wpm. Treat the figure as a planning estimate, not a precise measurement. A separate speaking time estimate uses 130 wpm, typical for a measured presentation pace.

Sentences are detected by splitting on periods, exclamation marks, and question marks. The calculator filters out decimal numbers like 3.14, but abbreviations like "Dr." or "Inc." and ellipses can still cause over- or under-counting. Treat the sentence count as a close approximation.

A paragraph is a block of text separated from the next by at least one blank line. A single newline is treated as a line break inside the same paragraph, so soft-wrapped lines do not inflate the paragraph count. Lines counts every non-empty line regardless of whether it starts a new paragraph.

The ranking skips a curated set of English stop words including "the", "a", "and", "of", "is", "to", "in", and about a dozen others, so the top five results surface meaningful repetition rather than grammar connectors. Matching is case-insensitive and strips surrounding punctuation, so "Running", "running,", and "running" all count as the same word.