From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds (usually in words per minute). When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for English.[1]
Details and variations of definition[edit]
Variations in the operational definitions of how to count the words can occur (namely, what «counts as» a word, and which words «don’t count» toward the total). However, especially since the advent of widespread word processing, there is a broad consensus on these operational definitions (and hence the bottom-line integer result). The consensus is to accept the text segmentation rules generally found in most word processing software (including how word boundaries are determined, which depends on how word dividers are defined). The first trait of that definition is that a space (any of various whitespace characters, such as a «regular» word space, an em space, or a tab character) is a word divider. Usually a hyphen or a slash is, too. Different word counting programs may give varying results, depending on the text segmentation rule details, and on whether words outside the main text (such as footnotes, endnotes, or hidden text) are counted. But the behavior of most major word processing applications is broadly similar.
However, during the era when school assignments were done in handwriting or with typewriters, the rules for these definitions often differed from today’s consensus. Most importantly, many students were drilled on the rule that «certain words don’t count», usually articles (namely, «a», «an», «the»), but sometimes also others, such as conjunctions (for example, «and», «or», «but») and some prepositions (usually «to», «of»). Hyphenated permanent compounds such as «follow-up» (noun) or «long-term» (adjective) were counted as one word. To save the time and effort of counting word-by-word, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was used, such as 10 words per line. These «rules» have fallen by the wayside in the word processing era; the «word count» feature of such software (which follows the text segmentation rules mentioned earlier) is now the standard arbiter, because it is largely consistent (across documents and applications) and because it is fast, effortless, and costless (already included with the application).
As for which sections of a document «count» toward the total (such as footnotes, endnotes, abstracts, reference lists and bibliographies, tables, figure captions, hidden text), the person in charge (teacher, client) can define their choice, and users (students, workers) can simply select (or exclude) the elements accordingly, and watch the word count automatically update.
Software[edit]
Modern web browsers support word counting via extensions, via a JavaScript bookmarklet, or a script that is hosted in a website. Most word processors can also count words. Unix-like systems include a program, wc, specifically for word counting. There are a wide variety of word counting tools available online.
Different word counting programs may give varying results, depending on the text segmentation rule details. The exact number of words often is not a strict requirement, thus the variation is acceptable.
In fiction[edit]
Novelist Jane Smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel.[2] However, novels can vary tremendously in length; Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words,[3] while National Novel Writing Month requires its novels to be at least 50,000 words. There are no firm rules: for example, the boundary between a novella and a novel is arbitrary and a literary work may be difficult to categorise.[4] But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer,[5] lengths may also vary by subgenre; many chapter books for children start at a length of about 16,000 words,[6] and a typical mystery novel might be in the 60,000 to 80,000 word range while a thriller could be well over 100,000 words.[7]
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula Award categories:[8]
| Classification | Word count |
|---|---|
| Novel | 40,000 words or over |
| Novella | 17,500 to 39,999 words |
| Novelette | 7,500 to 17,499 words |
| Short story | up to 7,500 words |
In non-fiction[edit]
The acceptable length of an academic dissertation varies greatly, dependent predominantly on the subject. Numerous American universities limit Ph.D. dissertations to 100,000 words, barring special permission for exceeding this limit.[9]
See also[edit]
- Flash fiction
- Twitterature
- Word lists by frequency
References[edit]
- ^ The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America suggest 6 chars to a word
- ^ Smiley, Jane. 2005. Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 14.
- ^ Smiley, 2005, p. 15.
- ^ Edge, Tom, «Does Size Matter?» The Guardian (UK), Booksblog, Nov. 2, 2006. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2006/nov/02/doessizematter
- ^ Quindlen, Anna (September 23, 2002), «Writers on Writing: The Eye of the Reporter, the Heart of the Novelist», New York Times,
A novelist doesn’t write to space, of course; 80,000 words, 100,000, it is up to the writer to say when the story is done.
. - ^ Lamb, Nancy, Crafting Stories for Children. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, p. 24
- ^ Thurston, Carol (August 3, 1997), «Agents give writers the book on what’s hot and what’s not», Austin American-Statesman,
no one wants more than 60-80,000 words in a mystery, 110,000 for a thriller
. - ^ SFWA Awards FAQ, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as follows:
- ^ Dunleavy, Patrick (2003), Authoring a PhD, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 46, ISBN 978-1-4039-1191-9.
Sources[edit]
- DeRocher, James E.; Miron, Murray S.; Patten, Sam M.; Pratt, Charles C. (1973), The Counting of Words: A Review of the History, Techniques and Theory of Word Counts with Annotated Bibliography (PDF), Syracuse University Research Corporation, p. 302, ED098814.
- Rothman, Chuck (2005), Word Counts: What Is a Word?, Science Fiction Writers of America. An article on various word count methods in fiction publishing.
- Michaels, Melisa (2005), Focusing on the Wrong Things, Science Fiction Writers of America, archived from the original on April 17, 2009 An article on the relative importance of various word count methods in fiction publishing.
Learn how your words are counted in IELTS. This page explains about counting words, numbers and symbols. You need to know how words are counted for IELTS listening, reading and writing. If you make mistakes with the number of words, you can lose points which can affect your band score.
How words are counted in IELTS
1. Numbers, dates and time are counted as words in writing. For example 30,000 = one word / 55 = one word / 9.30am = one word / 12.06.2016 = one word. “Six million” is counted as two words in IELTS writing. In listening, 30,000 is counted as one number and 9.30AM is also counted as one number.
2. Dates written as both words and numbers are counted in this way: 12th July = one number and one word in IELTS listening and as two words in IELTS writing.
3. Symbols with numbers are not counted. For example, 55% = one number (the symbol “%” is not counted as a word). However, if you write “55 percent” it is counted as one word and one number.
4. Small words such as “a” or “an” are counted. All prepositions, such as “in” or “at” are also counted. All words are counted.
5. Hyphenated words like “up-to-date” are counted as one word.
6. Compound nouns which are written as one word are also counted as one word. For example, blackboard = one word.
7. Compound nouns which are written as two separate words, are counted as two words. For example, university bookshop = two words.
8. All words are counted, including words in brackets. For example in IELTS writing, “The majority of energy was generated by electricity (55%).”. This sentence is counted as 9 words. The number in brackets is counted. Brackets can be used in IELTS Writing Task 1, but not in IELTS Listening or IELTS Reading.
9. Some people have asked me if words such as “the” are counted only once regardless of how many times they are used. It is best to illustrate: “The man walked into the shop for the newspaper” = 9 words.
10. Contractions are counted as: it’s = one word / it is = two words.
Tips
- Get useful tips and advice about the word count for IELTS writing.
- Start learning how to write compound nouns correctly. Some are one word and some are written as two words. If you make a mistake, it can affect your band score. Here’s a link to tips about compound nouns.
- Learn more about the meaning of ” no more than one word and/or a number” in listening and reading, by watching the video on the main IELTS Listening Page.
Maybe you’re a parent, and your kid is coming home each week with increasingly extensive vocab lists. Or maybe you’re a student yourself, and each week the readings your professor assigns contain more and more convoluted vocab. Pneuomonoultramicropscophicsilicovolcanoconiosis, anyone? Either way, you might find yourself wondering: just how many words are there in English, anyway?
Complications in the Count
The unsatisfying truth is that it’s hard to put an exact number on how many words are in any given language. Yes, there are dictionaries with numerically labeled entries, which would allow us to easily estimate a total word count. But dictionaries aren’t actually comprehensive lists of every word in a language. Instead, they pick out the words that are most commonly and widely used, and tend to exclude archaic terms. They also often don’t include the newest words in a language. All languages are constantly expanding, and words are being created every day. It would be impossible for a dictionary to update frequently enough to contain every single new word at all times.
And, as Merriam-Webster points out, there’s some ambiguity over what constitutes a unique word. A single word with different tenses may be one or more words, and a single spelling of a word with multiple meanings also may be counted once or multiple times, such as “rose.”
Because of all these factors, the number of words listed individually in a dictionary is probably lower than the number in the language as a whole. However, dictionaries can be used to estimate the number of words in current use in a language.
How Many Words are There, Actually?
Still, you might say: even taking all that into account, surely we can make some sort of estimate? And yes, we can, though those estimates might vary widely.
One of the highest estimates of the number of words in the English language was made by Harvard University during a collaboration with Google in 2010. This study estimated that there are just over a million words in the English language.
Most scholars, though, agree that this number is somewhat inflated – in part by the counting of similar words – and look to dictionaries for a more realistic guide. Merriam-Webster, as of 1993, estimated around 470,000. And the English Wiktionary, which is updated frequently and which contains more slang and unofficial language, has around 520,000 words.
On the lowest end of the spectrum, we can look at the Oxford English Dictionary’s list of words in current use. According to this list, as of 1989, there are around 171,000 words circulating in the English language. Clearly, then, there is a big range in how many words you count in the English language, depending on how you define a unique word and how else you set your parameters.
What About Other Languages?
But is this number normal? We might assume that all languages have roughly equal numbers of words, but in fact, this isn’t always the case. For one, ancient languages tended to have fewer words than modern languages, in part because of a reduction in the number of ‘things’ a speaker had to identify. Ancient Norse, for instance, didn’t need a word for ‘internet’ or ‘Teletubby.’
Also, language has diversified as it evolved. For example, many ancient languages actually only have two to five words for different colors, with many languages lacking a word for yellow or green. In fact, studies of languages have shown that most languages start out with one of two color words: dark and light. Over time, these color terms diversified to include first red, then blue and other colors. Now, all languages do not have the same number of color terms as English. For instance, Mandarin doesn’t have a term for pink; they simply say ‘light red’. On the other hand, Russian has a specific word for light blue, whereas we, in English, simply call it ‘light blue.’
So how does English compare to other languages? According to a list of dictionaries by number of words, the largest dictionary in the world is a Korean dictionary, Woori Mal Saem, which includes both North and South Korean dialects. This dictionary has over 1,100,000 entries. Other dictionaries with high word counts include the Portuguese Aulete Digital dictionary, which has over 800,000 words; the Finnish RedFox Pro dictionary, with over 800,000 words; and the Authority of Kurdish Language Dictionary, with around 744,000 words.
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