Wordema Open the library

How fast do people read?

Adult reading speed for ordinary prose is commonly put at roughly 200 to 300 words a minute. Like most averages, it hides more than it reveals.

Why the number moves

Your reading speed is not a fixed property of you. It changes with the material, the purpose and the day. A familiar novel might run comfortably above your average; a legal contract or a passage of dense philosophy will drop well below it, and should. Reading a recipe to cook from is a different act than reading a poem.

What the pace names mean on Wordema

Rather than making you think in numbers, Wordema names the pace as you change it:

Swipe up and down while reading to move between them. The setting is remembered.

How to find your own pace

Push the speed up until you notice yourself losing the sense of the sentence, then come back a step. That edge is different for everyone and different for every book. The point of putting the control under your thumb is that you can move it mid-chapter when the writing changes.

One thing worth knowing: with RSVP the pace also interacts with punctuation. Wordema's tone setting controls how long the reader pauses at commas and full stops, which changes how a sentence feels without changing its speed. More on the three controls.

Common questions

What is the average reading speed for adults?
It is commonly put at roughly 200 to 300 words per minute for ordinary prose, though it varies widely with the material and the reader.
What is a good reading speed?
The one at which you understand and remember what you read. That is lower for dense material and higher for familiar material, so a single number is not a useful target.
Can you increase your reading speed?
Modest improvements come from familiarity with the subject and from removing wasted eye movement and re-reading. Dramatic increases usually turn out to be skimming.

Open the library

Keep reading