Consider:

say scalar split /\W/,  "the cat is the on the mat";       # 7
say scalar split /\W/,  "the  cat  is  the  on  the  mat"; # 13

say scalar split /\W+/, "the cat is the on the mat";       # 7
say scalar split /\W+/, "the  cat  is  the  on  the  mat"; # 7
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