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.
Prepostseo online word counter tool and line counter tool are developed with multiple options. To improve quality, prepostseo developers added all premium features in this text counter.
Quick & Fast
To make this word count tool lightning-fast, we have removed captcha. Copy & paste text in the input box and it will display results in real time.
Safe & Secure
We respect our user’s privacy. Rest assured, we do not store any text/document you upload to calculate the number of words in our database. Also, we do not share any of your data publicly.
Detailed Results
Our tool does not only give letter count and char count but also displays you other results including Keyword Density, Estimated Reading Time, Estimated Speaking Time, and Total Paragraphs, etc.
Online Word Count Tool calculates a total number of words and chars in your text. If you are a blogger then you have to maintain the length of the blog post. Google loves lengthy posts as compare to short posts. You can also check how many total pages your text have using prepostseo words to pages converter tool
Text character count online is used when you have to post something on social media websites e-g Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. For example, Tweeter allows you to post a specific number of characters per post and that is 160 chars. Also when we talk about social sharing short content has more impact than long paragraphs. In that case, you have to count each alphabet you are typing for the post.
Why Online Word Counter?
It becomes very difficult when you have to calculate total words and chars for lengthy documents. We know if you are using Microsoft word, excel or PowerPoint it will automatically display these values but in the case of PDF files, you can do this work manually. Because the word calculator is not available in PDF files.
In the same way, when writing essays or thesis, you have to maintain the length of your papers. Because most of the time teachers do not love bulky assignments or essays. They want quality instead of quantity and Prepostseo essay word counter shows you the density of the words as well so you can summarize your essays or assignments quickly.
Similarly, if you are a social media manager in a company you have to post updates regularly. Will you do a manual word count and character count? No, you will try an online tool that can calculate all this in milliseconds.
BECAUSE, CHOICE OF WORDS MATTER!
Writing a blog, essay, or novel? A good choice of words makes the writing come alive. Short and informative content has more power as compared to lengthy and less informative.
As a reader, what do you find enjoyable? Most likely your answer will be an article with quality content and interesting information. A summarized essay or article is key to improve the readability of your content. Writers understand that, in this era of the internet, there is a saturation of content. Only well organized and summarized articles can attract readers.
Prepostseo Word Counter
The word counter tool by Prepostseo is an ideal tool to check the metrics of written content. Our efforts have made their ultimate effort to add all the premium features for a word counter in this tool. This tool presents multiple metrics that could help you in improving the quality of your content and SEO. Our tool is packed with various useful features, these features are listed below:
Faster Turnaround of Results
One of the highlights of this tool is a quick analysis of content and faster results turnaround. There is no need for any captcha entry for verification because we at Prepostseo understand, it takes a considerable chunk of time that can be irritating for users sometimes.
We have removed the need for captcha entry, users can simply paste their content and check out the results quickly. Users don’t need to click any submit button after pasting the text. They just need to simply paste or upload the content, and their content will be analyzed for multiple word count metrics, and results will be shown quickly.
Ensured Content Safety and Security
We at Prepostseo, respect your privacy, and that’s why we don’t use your content for anything else that makes the security and safety of your content in danger. We never save or store your content for later use.
Written files that you upload on our database for analysis of content and the word count are never used anywhere else. We have a strict privacy policy, and we believe that the data of our users should only be used and published by them, and therefore, we never share your content publicly.
Comprehensive Result
When user paste content for word counts analysis on our efficient word counter tool, it displays a complete result that includes multiple metrics quickly. Our efficient tool doesn’t only count the characters and words in your text but also measure some other metrics related to the content which could be useful for you.
This tool also displays the estimated time to read the whole text and estimated time needed while speaking the written text. It also shows the total number of sentences in a text file. Not only that, but It also displays the longest sentence used in the text and the number of characters and words in the sentences. Similarly, it also displays the longest word used in the text. The number of characters in the longest word is also shown.
It also displays the keywords and their percentage in the whole text file. I also categorize text in long words and short words and displays their percentage in the whole content. It also displays the average length of words used in text in the number of characters and the average length of sentences in the number of words. It also shows the number of paragraphs in a text file. All these features are very useful for people who want a comprehensive analysis of their written content.
No restriction on Word Count Check
You can upload or copy/paste countless files to check word count analysis for these files in a single sitting. You won’t be asked to come tomorrow for more word count analysis. You can use this efficient word count tool can be used for countless times in a day.
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Users can use this tool for free without paying any charges. We at Prepostseo are determined to make life of people easier with our useful tools and free of cost use of word counter tool reflects that. You can use multiple text files without any restriction of words and files per day.
Combination of Multiple Useful Tools
In addition to word counter, Prepostseo has plenty of useful tools to offer for the enhancement of text content. Users can use grammar checkers and plagiarism checker to improve the quality of their content. Paraphrasing tool and article rewriter are also available for this purpose. A combination of these useful tools would enable users to create high-quality and plagiarism-free content.
Values displayed by our free word count:
We have developed our online software in such ways that users can get maximum benefits. Our tool displays the following values:
Total Words: Count words in the text and display it on the top bar of the input box. In the case of mobile, this sum will be shown under the input box.
Total Characters: Run a real-time scan and count total chars with and without spaces.
Keyword Density: Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase used in a text or article. It is useful when you want to avoid keyword stuffing. If you are an SEO expert, you must know Google hates keyword stuffing.
Estimated Reading Time: It is an estimated value of time in which your text can be read. By default, its value is 200 words per minute.
Estimated Speaking Time: Speaking is a little tough and slower process than reading. Its default value is 125 words per minute.
Total Sentences: As the name suggests, these are the total number of sentences/paragraphs in your text.
Longest Sentence: If you are aware of readability rate, you might know long sentences decrease the readability rate. This value will display the longest sentence in your text or file.
Plagiarism Checker: Plagiarism detector is not directly integrated with this tool, but you can check the plagiarism of your text by just clicking the icon.
Grammar checker: In writing, grammar is one of the most important things. This feature is also not directly integrated with this tool, but you can find out all grammatical mistakes with just one click.
Who can use the word counter?
Writing is a tough job. Writing something is never easy when you have to stay within particular limits assigned to you like maximum and a minimum number of words limit.
You have to keep yourself active not to exceed the limit. It happens in both the online and offline world with different people like Students, bloggers, webmasters, etc. Although these people are from various fields but are usually facing this issue.
Here are some people who can use the word count tool and how they can avoid breaching word limits.
Students
Some students with brilliant vocabulary and understanding when assigned with a topic can write a bunch of papers if they were allowed to do so, but typically there is a limit of words that needs to be followed.
Students can use free text counter online to count the number of words, characters, number of sentences, and others in their essays, assignment, and sometimes thesis as well.
Moreover, the word limit is necessary in the world of academia as the quality is preferred over quantity. The limit can make students stick to the topic and avoid not to make any blunders in the text.
Bloggers
Professional life is nothing but just hard work and dedication. When in workload pressure, you in a hurry may forget essential things like word count and other things.
Word count is important in a blogger’s life. Exceeding the word count limit intentionally or unintentionally is not a good sign for a blogger who is having a low number of readers.
If you are a blogger, you may lose readers as they may find your content boring due to the length of your text. Quality matters more than quantity. Try to add relatable words and sentences to engage readers not to add different things just for the sake of completing the task. Not to worry, character count online is here to save your day.
Our tool gives out results like:
- word count in your text
- total no of characters in the text
- Point out long phrases and number of words in those phrases
- Point out long words and the number of characters in those words
- Point out Grammar mistakes
- Read time in minutes
Freelance Writers
Freelancing and meeting the demands of the client is not easy. Freelance writing is all about the quality of writing you process to produce more clients. Char count and letter count are important for a freelancer as customers usually send guidelines mentioning not to breach a given word limit.
Word calculator is a much-needed thing for a freelancer. Manually counting words is old stuff and consumes plenty of time. Why waste time on these minute problems. Free word count online is the easiest solution possible.
In the end, after completing the work, just copy and paste your work in the text counter to know the total number of words and even alphabets occurring in your text to avoid any mishap between you and your client.
Teachers
Teachers can also avail benefits using word counter online. Benefits like when teachers have to check exam papers of the students online, to count a number of characters, sentences, and alphabets, this tool can be used.
Manually although it is possible to count words, it consumes a hell allot of time. Check the papers in minutes to lessen the burden over teachers using our essay word counter.
The Char count tool online not just only checks words, but it can also show (if demanded) the number of sentences and even single characters occurring in a text.
Webmasters
For SEO of a website, the ideal word limit for an article are a minimum of 1000 words and a maximum of 3000 words per article.
Administrators of websites have to make sure this thing not to breach the max limit or stay behind the minimum limit. Creating unique and eye-catchy articles is essential with a proper word limit to make it perfect. The SEO of the website will increase as well.
Our website word counter can be used to count the total number of words on your website by just putting the URL of the website in the provided area.
The word counter offered on DupliChecker isn’t an ordinary tool that just lets you know about the total number of words existing in a piece of text.
This wordcounter is quite efficient due to its advanced and exceptional results. The outcomes offered by this word counter include the following:
Total Number of Words
Have you ever received a task that required a specific number of words?
Counting words manually in such a situation won’t be an efficient approach. Therefore, you can utilize our word counter to find the exact number of words existing in any kind of text. If you want to rewrite an already written text file, you can rely on the paraphrasing tool.
Total Characters
Character count matters when it comes to sharing any post on social media or updating meta tags of applications and websites.Our word calculator provides you with this information. It helps you to analyze whether your text’s length is within the given character limit or not.
Total Sentences
In academic writing, the students are asked to follow the given structure and layout, which also includes the limitation on the maximum/minimum number of sentences.
Duplichecker’s sentence counter will prove to be beneficial for you in this regard, as you can figure out the total sentences existing in your content with a single click. Duplichecker also helps you to eliminate all the errors existing in your sentences, as it also offers the grammar checker facility.
Show Syllables
Enhancing the readability of written content is crucial to improving its readership.
Our syllable counter shows syllables to help people know about this important aspect of writing. Syllables play an integral role in this regard, as they work as building blocks of words.
Estimated Reading Time
How much time will you take to go entirely through your content?
The exact pace at which a reader goes through your content from top till end can’t be figured out. However, you can still find an estimated reading time based on an average reader’s skills through this online word count checker tool.
Case Conversion Toolbar
Another top-notch feature of this word checker is the case conversion toolbar.
You can easily convert your text into any case, such as uppercase, lowercase, sentence case, capitalized case, alternating case, toggle case, snake case, and hyphen case by using this word counter.
Word Counter Tool for SEO Pros
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FAQ
Why word count matters?
Whether you are a college student, a content writer, manager or novelist, you know how important word usage in any type of text is. The purpose of any writing is to create a readable and convenient text that is easy to perceive. It is important to express your thoughts and ideas effectively. Generally, it means that every word counts, in the majority of cases it is better to be simple and use a minimal number of words. First of all, it makes any text shorter and, therefore, more pleasant to readers. Secondly, it makes it clear and easy to comprehend, a message of your writing should be straightforward and without any misinterpretations.
When it comes to articles, the fewer words, the better. We live in a time of information, and no one has the tolerance to deal with huge piles of text. Generally, any type of written content has a desirable amount of words, whether it is an essay, dissertation or novel. When you are limited with words, it makes you more conscious of their choice and power they have. It helps to deliver ideas logically so the reader won’t be lost in endless adjectives.
The main goal of any information source is to deliver the main idea, that’s why it is crucial to stick to the point and follow the structure. Your words use also influences your reputation as a writer. Yes, there is usually a desire to make text longer, but it is not always for the better. For example, the more clearly you understand the topic, the simpler you can explain it. If you go around with long metaphors, it might mean that you don’t actually have a good comprehension of it.
Every word one use should be efficient in what it is supposed to do. Be sure that you have a clear vision of what you are going to write and what message is being delivered, especially when we talk about academic writing or job-related communication. For example, if you are working on a presentation of the product, concentrate on the crucial features you need to underline, provide only essential information. When you are working on a science project, us the appropriate scholarly language style, which very clear, short and straightforward.
How to use words counter properly?
Writers are paid for the number of words, that why some of them might tend superficially increase them in the text. However, it might be a disadvantage if a reader will get tired of it. Unless you are Honoré de Balzac, there is no need to use all the words you know. It is better to stick to the efficient ways of message delivery.
Sometimes it is also crucial what kinds of words you use and in what number. For example, if you are a blogger or a content writer, you want your text appearing in search engine, like Google, on the first page. It means that the text should be structured and written according to the purpose and main keywords. There are also stop-words that imply that the text is overstuffed with the unnecessary lexis. It reduces the chances of your content to be viewed on the first page. Yes, if you are writing about vacation places, you need to use words in this regard, such as vacation, beach, rest, relax, etc. however, if you overuse them just to make your text relevant it will be impossible to read. Remember that the main purpose of any type of writing is to be informative and interesting to read for a perceiver.
That’s why if you are interested in increasing your writing skills and the quality of your texts, you need to care about word count. It is amazing that today we have technologies that help us to do it faster and in a very comfortable way, just behind our computer. So it is only reasonable to use professional software designed for this purpose. That’s why when you need an instant count of a specific word, Microsoft Word can show you a general word count, but it won’t get you a detailed and comprehensive report. The copywritely.com website offers an online report on word count. It is amazing because you don’t need to download anything or install additional software. Basically, you just type in or copy paste your text in a box on a website and proceed with analysis. Now you know everything you need to write a decent text!
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Service description
1Text.com Word Count is totally unique without any equivalents on the Web. Highlighting watery fragments, keyword density areas, and keywords in a text make the analysis interactive and easy to interpret.
Word Count includes:
Word count, character count in your text online
The online service count words and characters in your text, including or excluding spaces.
Analysis of keywords and semantic core of a text
Finding keywords and detection of theiк number is extremely useful for writing new texts and improving existing ones. The service arranges keywords in groups and by frequency for fast and simple search. It will also show keyword forms when you click on it.
Detection of watery in the text
Shows the exact percentage of stop-words, idioms and conjunctions it the text. A small percentage of watery in the text is natural, but:
- to 15% — average amount of watery;
- from 15% to 30% — exceeded amount;
- from 30% — high amount of watery in the text.
Detection of keywords density of the text
Keyword density shows a number of keywords in a text. The more the keywords, the higher the keyword density:
- to 30% — absence or average number of keywords in a text;
- from 30% to 60% — SEO-optimized text. Search engines consider such texts relevant to the keywords they include in most cases.
- from 60% — too optimized text with high keyword density.
Search for words with swapped letters
The parameter finds words consisting of letters from different alphabets: for example, the English word «table», where an «a» is taken from the Cyrillic alphabet. Some copywriters swap letters in the texts to pass Plagiarism Check successfully and raise the percentage of originality. Word Count 1Text.com will detect such words easily.