In telegraphy and radio communications, operators measure message length and transmission speed in standardized words rather than actual linguistic words. The standard assumes an average word consists of five characters and one trailing space. This metric allows for consistent calculation of transmission rates, such as words per minute, regardless of the actual text complexity.
The new operator can copy code at twenty words per minute without breaking a sweat.
Related terms
Baud
A measure of signaling rate representing the number of state changes per second on a communications channel.
Morse code
A character encoding scheme that transmits text as a sequence of short and long signal pulses.
CW
Continuous Wave, an unmodulated radio signal used primarily for Morse code transmission.