Word Counter
Counts words, characters, sentences and paragraphs, ranks the most repeated words, and estimates the reading time of an essay or article.
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About Word Counter
Words are counted the way an editor counts them: any run of letters or digits is one word, and a hyphen or an apostrophe inside a word keeps it glued, so "well-known" and "don't" each count once.
A sentence is any run of words closed by a full stop, an exclamation mark, a question mark or a line break; paragraphs are blocks of text separated by a blank line, so the paragraph count matches what you typed rather than what a word processor saw.
The reading time is the word count divided by your reading speed. Set the speed to how you will actually read it aloud, then compare the result with the time slot you are writing for.
Questions about Word Counter
Does a hyphenated word count once or twice?
Once. A hyphen or an apostrophe inside a word keeps the pieces together, so only spaces and other punctuation split words.
How is the reading time calculated?
Words divided by your words-per-minute speed, which defaults to 200. Reading out loud is slower, near 130 words per minute.
Are numbers and emoji counted as words?
Numbers count as one word each, the way a proofreader tallies them. Emoji carry no letters, so they are characters but not words.
Why do small words like "the" top the list?
They really are the most frequent words in English prose. Read the table as a repetition check, not as an essay critique.
Bookmark and homescreen
- Press Ctrl+B now (or Cmd+B on macOS) to bookmark this page in your browser.
- Drag this link to your bookmarks bar and it will always open this tool: Word Counter.
- On a phone: open in Chrome/Safari and use "Add to Home Screen" — the site ships a homescreen icon and manifest, so it installs like an app.
- Two addresses work:
https://useful-utilities.com/word-counter/andword-counter.useful-utilities.com. Copy whichever you prefer.