Unless you ’re anaudiobook narratoror a frequentpublic speaker(or you have some other job involving the relationship between time and speech ) , you might not have any idea how many words citizenry run to speak in a given minute .
First off , it depends on what sort of speaking you ’re doing : a presentation , a average conversation , etc . But even when you break it into disjoined categories , words - per - second estimates alter wide . If you ’re casually talking to a friend , some sources claim that you ’re probablysayingsomewhere between 100 and 130 password per minute , while others cite the chain of mountains as 120 to 150 Holy Writ . allot to professional speech training firmSuccessfully talk , colloquial speech is typically in the 150 - 180 ballpark .
Whatever the average conversational speech rate may be , it ’s more often than not agreed that presentations should be spoken more slowly than that . ameliorate Podcastestimatesthat the average falls between 100 and 150 word per minute . But speeches are fairly often given at a quicker footstep . VirtualSpeechcrunched the numbers on five popular TED talks of various length and found that the speaking rates in reality fall between 154 ( return by Brené Brown ) and 201 ( Tony Robbins ) Holy Writ per moment , for an average of 173 wpm .
On the whole , audiobook narrator , wireless host , and podcasters purportedly address slightly faster than they would during a regular chat : around 150 to 160 words per minute . Auctioneersare in a class of their own , clock about 250 words per minute of arc . And commentators , who need to keep up with tight - pace gambol , may even outpace auctioneers .
But when it come to the dissolute verbaliser of all , nobody ’s ever done it better than Sean Shannon , who hold theGuinness World Recordfor ‘ fastest verbaliser . ’ In 1995 , Shannon recited the 260 - word ‘ To be or not to be ’ speech from Shakespeare’sHamletin 23.8 seconds — which put to work out to 655 countersign per minute .
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