Fact · Typing and writing speed
5characters per word
For words per minute, a word is defined as five characters, including spaces and punctuation.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“includes spaces, punctuation, or other characters in the inputted text”
A Note on Calculating Text Entry Speed, I. Scott MacKenzie, York University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (author's research note), 2002, Words Per Minute.
Open the original- What it measures
- Mackenzie explains that characters per second are converted to words per minute by multiplying by 60 and dividing by five.
- What it does not show
- This is a convention. Mackenzie notes that the choice of start and end times changes the result.
Source
Used to calculate
Cited on
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