What is the average word length?

Question

I'm looking for average written word length by the average person, not the calculated average word length in the dictionary (or aspell) or the average written word length in a scientific document. More like USA Today article type of thing.

Answer 1

I do not know maybe sixish, (usually eightish), effective numeration.

i had to stop there, at the 10-letter word.

Answer 2

The best advice is for you just write until you finish tellling your story. Let the editor work out the length. As always, there will be come cuts ands it all comes out in the he wash. I tend to come in at about 140 thousand words. Someone like James Patererson uses a larger font and short chapters with a lot of half empty pages, so his books appear much longer. Just tell your story. Let your editor worry about the length.If the publisher likes the story, the length won't matter all that much. Look at The Historian. Pax - C

Answer 3

Typing speed tests are based on a 5 letter word.

Answer 4

Back in the old days when journalists and authors were paid by the word, and there were no computers to count the words, they were paid by just assuming 5 characters per word. Their stuff was typed up on fixed-pitch typewriters, so you knew how many characters per line and lines per page. The total character count would be divided by 6 to allow for one space per word.

Answer 5

about 6 letters, since USA Today is written for a 5th grade reading level.

Answer 6

No more than twelve letters, three syllables, otherwise the average reader starts to lose interes......

I'm sorry, I don't actually know the answer to that.