wpm
Americanabbreviation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Pen-and-ink clerks who struggled to top 20 words a minute were displaced by typists who could top 60 wpm, especially if they used new touch-typing techniques pioneered by a Cincinnati stenographer, Elizabeth Longley.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 15, 2025
In Foulke’s experiments, speech could be accelerated to 250-275 wpm without affecting people’s scores on a listening comprehension test.
From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2016
Foulke suspected that beyond 300 wpm, deeper processes in the brain were getting overloaded.
From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2016
Experiments showed that at 300-400 wpm, individual words were still clear enough to understand; except at that rate, many listeners couldn’t keep up with rapid stream of words, likely because their short-term memories were overtaxed.
From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2016
Franz bounded out next, 320 wpm, with Hyacinth close behind.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
