How many words is a five minute speech, and other counting questions
Speaking rates, essay limits, tweet and meta description limits, and how to count what a teacher, an editor or a form is actually counting.
A comfortable speaking pace is between 120 and 150 words a minute. Nervous speakers drift up towards 180 and become hard to follow; a deliberate, formal delivery sits nearer 110.
So a five minute speech is about 600 to 750 words. Aim for the lower end, because live audiences need pauses and you will want the room to laugh once.
Speech lengths at a glance
- One minute: 130 words.
- Three minutes: 400 words.
- Five minutes: 650 words.
- Ten minutes: 1300 words.
- Twenty minutes, which is the usual conference slot: 2600 words.
What counts as a word
Most academic departments count everything in the body, including quotations, and exclude the bibliography and the footnotes. Some include footnotes. A ten percent margin either side of the limit is usual but never guaranteed, so ask rather than assume.
Hyphenated words count as one. Numbers count as one each. An em dash between two words can make some counters treat them as one word, which is one of several reasons to write with plain punctuation.
Character limits worth knowing
- Page title for search results: about 60 characters before it is cut.
- Meta description: 155 to 160 characters.
- LinkedIn headline: 220 characters.
- SMS: 160 characters per message, less if you use emoji or accented letters.
When the count is wrong
Text pasted from a PDF or a chat window arrives with invisible characters, double spaces and line breaks in the middle of sentences. Counters disagree because they are counting different things.
Common questions
How long does it take to read 1000 words aloud?
About seven to eight minutes at a normal pace, and nearer six if you are reading quickly to camera.
Is 500 words a page?
Double spaced in 12 point, a page holds about 250 words. Single spaced, about 500.
Do titles and headings count towards an essay limit?
Usually not the title, usually yes the headings. Departments vary, and the answer is in the handbook.
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