This is sort of an amendment, because it struck me that word counting is much harder than it looks. Let's take a look at the text "little boy" in three different contexts:

First: Let's consider a 10 year old boy living in Rhode Island: He knows the meaning of the words "little" and "boy" and he heard of a bomb named "Little Boy" in school. It made the U.S. win some war a long time ago and every year there is a celebration. So, three words?

Second: A 10 year old British girl. She certainly knows the words "little" and "boy", but she never heard of the things that happened in Japan in 1945. Those things are taught at a later age. So, two words?

Third: A 10 year old girl in Japan. She doesn't know a single word of english. Neither the words "little" nor "boy" have any meaning to her. But every time she walks to school, she walks past the Genbaku dome. She asked her parents about it, and now she knows that an awful and terrifying machine named "Little Boy" killed her great-grandparents and destroyed her city. So, one word?