Glossary
Articulation rate
Articulation rate is the number of syllables a speaker produces per second, leaving out pauses. It measures how fast the speech itself comes out, so it is usually faster than the overall speaking rate that counts every pause.
Updated October 16, 20263 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called articulation speed.
Articulation rate is the number of syllables a speaker produces per second, with pauses left out 1. It measures how quickly the sounds come out, not how quickly a person talks overall.
Articulation rate leaves out the pauses
Two people can say the same sentence at the same articulation rate and still finish at different speeds, because one stops to think more often. Speech researchers time only the spoken part. The 2009 study that defines the measure timed "the actual time participants took to utter the syllables of the target phrase or sentence, excluding pauses and dysfluencies" 2. That study measured the rate in people with several types of dysarthria, a motor speech disorder, and in healthy speakers.
How it differs from speaking rate
Speaking rate counts all the elapsed time, including pauses. In large recordings of conversation, the overall rate averaged 196 words per minute, counting every hesitation and turn change 3. Remove the pauses from the same speech and the rate goes up, because the same words are now divided by less time. Articulation rate is the rate the speech sustains while it is running. Speaking rate is the rate a listener or a dictation user actually experiences.
How the measure is counted
Articulation rate is worked out in three steps. Count the syllables a speaker produces, using their spelling as a guide. Time only the stretches of speech, leaving out silent pauses and disfluent sounds. Divide the syllables by that time to get syllables per second. Counting rules matter. Studies differ in how they treat filled pauses such as "um", so compare published rates only when the rules are the same.
Why it matters for dictation
When you dictate, the words you say come out at your articulation rate, but the time you take includes pauses to think, breaths and spoken corrections. Dictation is therefore slower than your articulation rate suggests. A fluent speaker can dictate quickly because the speaking itself is fast and most of the remaining time is thinking. If you want to see your own pace, time a short passage you read aloud, count its syllables and compare that figure with how long a full dictation session takes.
Related terms
- Words per minute (WPM): the usual unit for typing and speaking speed, counted in words.
- Oral reading fluency (ORF): the measure of words read correctly in one minute of reading aloud.
- Dictation: speaking so that software writes your words as you say them.
Guides that cover it
Evidence
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Related terms
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterThe topic this term belongs to
- Characters per minute (CPM)Characters per minute (CPM) is the number of characters typed in one minute, counting spaces and punctuation. Words per minute is the same count divided by five, so a typist at 50 WPM enters 250 characters per minute.
- ColemakColemak is an alternative English keyboard layout, introduced in 2006 and designed for efficient, comfortable touch typing. Its supporters describe it as the third most popular layout for English touch typing, after QWERTY and Dvorak, but that ranking has no stated method.
- Dvorak Simplified KeyboardThe Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is an alternative English keyboard layout that places the most common letters on the home row. Dvorak and Dealey applied for a patent on it in 1932, but the studies that claimed it was faster than QWERTY have been criticized, and the evidence for a speed gain is weak.
- Home rowThe home row is the middle row of keys on a keyboard, where the fingers rest when you touch type. On a QWERTY keyboard it holds A, S, D, F for the left hand and J, K, L and semicolon for the right, and every other key is reached by moving a finger away from it and back.
- Hunt and peckHunt and peck is a typing method in which the typist finds each key by sight and presses it with one or two fingers, usually the index fingers. It is also called two-finger typing, and it differs from touch typing, which relies on memorized key positions and the home row.
- Keystroke dynamicsKeystroke dynamics is the identification of a person from the rhythm of their typing, using the timing between key presses as a pattern much like a handwritten signature. It is a behavioral biometric, so it supports identity checks through statistical matching rather than proving who typed.
- Keystrokes per character (KSPC)Keystrokes per character (KSPC) is the average number of keystrokes a text entry method needs to produce one character of text. A basic QWERTY keyboard scores 1, methods that need more presses score above 1, and word prediction can score below 1.
- Keystrokes per hour (KPH)Keystrokes per hour (KPH) is the number of key presses made in one hour. It is the standard unit for numeric data entry, where many jobs require 8,000 or 10,000 keystrokes per hour, and it counts keys rather than words.
- Oral reading fluency (ORF)Oral reading fluency (ORF) measures how many words a reader gets right in one minute of reading a passage aloud. Schools record the result as words correct per minute (WCPM), which subtracts the words read wrongly from the total.
- QWERTYQWERTY is the standard letter arrangement on English keyboards, named for the first six letters of the top row. Christopher Latham Sholes devised it in the early 1870s for typewriters, and it is still the layout most people type on, even though faster layouts have been proposed.
- Rollover typingRollover, or key rollover, is the number of key presses a keyboard can detect when they overlap. Two-key rollover reliably detects only two keys at once, and a matrix keyboard without diodes can register a ghost key when three keys are pressed together.
- StenotypeA stenotype, also called a steno machine, is a chorded keyboard that stenographers use for shorthand, pressing several keys together to produce a syllable or word. The NCRA's court reporter skills test sets a speed of 225 words per minute, and voice writing is a newer method that uses speech recognition instead.
Pages that use this term
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterTopic
- Speaking Speed: How Many Words per Minute People TalkGuide
- How do you calculate your speaking speed in words per minute?Question
- How many words per minute do people normally speak?Question
- How many words per minute should you speak in a presentation?Question
- Oral reading fluency (ORF)Glossary