Do hyphenated words count as one word or two?

By the most common convention, a hyphenated compound counts as one word. "Well-known", "self-aware", and "twenty-one" each count as one.

The rationale: a hyphen joins two morphemes into a single lexical unit. Microsoft Word and most academic word counters follow this rule. A few specialised counters (e.g. some legal-document tools) count each hyphenated component separately.