Fact · Speech recognition
Morris, Maier and Green describe word error rate as the de facto standard index for speech recognition assessment, defined as the proportion of word errors to words processed.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“The present de facto standard index for ASR system assessment is the Word Error Rate, which is defined as the proportion of word errors to words processed”
From WER and RIL to MER and WIL: Improved Evaluation Measures for Connected Speech Recognition, Andrew Cameron Morris et al., Proceedings of Interspeech 2004, ISCA, 2004, Section 1, Introduction.
Open the original- What it measures
- The paper is a 2004 study of connected speech recognition, published at the Interspeech conference.
- What it does not show
- The statement describes the 2004 state of the field. It does not say WER measures how much a reader would have to correct.