NAME

wc − word count

SYNOPSIS

wc [ −lwc ] [ name ... ]

DESCRIPTION

Wc counts lines, words, and characters in the named files, or in the standard input, if no name appears.  A word is a maximal string containing at least one printable character and delimited by spaces, tabs, or newlines. 

If an argument beginning with one of “lwc” is present, the specified counts (lines, words, or characters) are selected by the letters l, w, or c, respectively.  The default is −lwc. 

4BSD