Word count
Number of words in a document or passage of text
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Through Word, Advertising and Translation
Software
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.
According to Chris Pratley of Microsoft, word count is an example of how product reviews are subjective and reflect their authors' biases. It is a feature that most users do not need, he wrote, except students and professional writers. Reviewers also use word count, thus software reviews mentioning the feature as vital to a word processor.
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In fiction
Novelist Jane Smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. However, novels can vary tremendously in length; Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words, 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. But while the length of a novel is mainly dependent on its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre; many chapter books for children start at a length of about 16,000 words, 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.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each of its Nebula Award categories:
In non-fiction
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.