What Counts as a Word?

"Word Count" is going to count plenty of things that aren’t words too -- and it doesn’t get to a more fundamental question: what actually is a word?

[insertname]

The strangest thing is that xnopyt looks like a proper word now that i've seen it a few times

[natalie-]

‘Words don’t have much use to linguists’ is a sentence i never thought i’d hear

[pyromancy]

the video is literally:
- "What counts as a word?"
- "That doesn't matter."

[kiro]

the fact that tom said in a professional way without any signs of laughter amazes me to this day

[cleanycloth]

The fact that you managed to spell out impresses me far more than anything in the world.

And yes, I had to type that manually too.

[edderiofer]

"Now we hear the mating call of the wild Tom Scott..."

[RRR]

yes, "what" does count as a word.

[josepholiveira]

"What if I ended this video with a smiley face?"
Video ends, Tom Scott's profile picture--which is him smiling--pops up right in the middle.
Artistic perfection.

[randomboi]

"if a word is some letters surrounded by a gap, then 'xnopyt'

[ПослеДождичкавЧетверг-ыю]

It's been 5 years and I'm still waiting for the second part called 'What counts as a PowerPoint?'

[memerproductions]

0:35
“Xnopyt, ”
*proceeds to have a stroke*

[projecttimewvrp]

0:35 and here, the wild Tom Scott practices its powerful mating call

[potatoonastick]

My favorite finnish word: Viuhahtelisinkohan

It means: "I wonder if I should run around aimlessly while naked."

[TheElvisnator]

Me: What's the password for the Wi-Fi?
My friend: It's on the back of the router
The back of the router: 0:38

[vaporwavevocap]

Xnopyt should be a word I like it. We need more "X" words.

[BellCube]

On the emoji one, I would classify them as punctuation, similar to how some non-English languages use "¡" and "¿" to convey the start of an exclamatory statement or inquiry.

[DarkLordScottie]

0:38 and here we see the very rare creature, the Tom Scott, in its natural habitat as it calls for a mate.

[natebait]

"then, xnopyt..."

_starts unleashing the warcries of the dead_

[nokidding]

Normal writing : imma get lunch
Writing essay: today noon i intend to walk gracefully outside to see if i can go and buy some lunch to satisfy my everlasting hunger

[James_Mular]

"imma" is a contraction of 2 contractions, I'm, and gonna, so originally you would write "I am going to" then it got shortened to "I'm gonna" and now it's "imma", but it is technically 1 word, which is fascinating, that we consistently try to find ways to shorten what we say/write