How it works
A word is any run of characters separated by whitespace, after leading and trailing spaces are trimmed. Hyphenated compounds such as “decision-making” count as one word, and a number like 2,500 counts as one word — which is how most word processors and most markers count too.
Characters are counted twice: once including spaces and once excluding them, because journals and forms differ on which they mean. Paragraphs are runs of text separated by a blank line. Sentences are split on periods, question marks, and exclamation points, with a short list of common abbreviations excluded so that “et al.” and “Fig. 3” do not each end a sentence.
Reading time is a straight division: total words divided by a fixed rate of 200 words per minute, which is a conventional average for silent reading of continuous prose. It is a rule of thumb rather than a measurement, and dense technical writing reads slower than that.
Everything is computed in your browser as you type. There is no request to a server, so the counts appear instantly and the text stays on your machine.
Why it matters for academic writing
Word limits in academic writing are enforced rather than advisory: journals desk-reject over-length submissions, and coursework rubrics often apply a penalty past a stated margin. Knowing where you stand before you start cutting tells you whether you need to trim a paragraph or restructure a section.
