wc

Use this command to count the number of characters, words, and lines in a file. Suppose, for example, that we have a file dict with contents

red rojo
green verde
blue azul
white blanco
black negro

Then we can do this

   % wc dict
    5      10      56 tmp

This shows that dict has 5 lines, 10 words, and 56 characters.

The word count command has several options, as illustrated below:

   % wc -l dict
    5 tmp
  % wc -w dict
    10 tmp
  % wc -c dict
    56 tmp