Reading Words Per Minute
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It's simply the total word count of the passage divided by the time in minutes it took to read it. Reading 1,000 words in 4 minutes gives a rate of 250 words per minute.

Average adult silent reading speed for easy material is typically cited around 200 to 250 words per minute, though this varies widely based on the reader, the text's difficulty, and the purpose of reading (skimming versus deep comprehension).

Not necessarily: raw speed says nothing about comprehension. A high rate with poor retention is generally less useful than a moderate rate with strong understanding, so speed should be interpreted alongside comprehension checks, not in isolation.

Text difficulty, sentence complexity, unfamiliar vocabulary, and content density (technical vs. narrative) all significantly affect reading speed, so the same person can read a novel far faster than a dense academic article.

Yes, to a degree: techniques like reducing subvocalization and minimizing regressions (re-reading the same line) can increase speed, though gains typically plateau well below the extreme rates sometimes claimed by speed-reading programs, since comprehension imposes a natural limit.