_WC — Returns the number of contiguous series of non-blank characters in the last file processed by WORDS.

Syntax:
%_WC

If the WORDS command has not been called, or if there was any error reading the last file, this variable returns the value N/A.

•  Note: Unlike the other variables set by WORDS, _WC does include any Byte Order Mark at the start of a file. A BOM will be treated as a non-blank character, and therefore count as a ‘word’ unto itself if the following character is whitespace. This, to my mind, is stupid behavior; a leading BOM should either be ignored altogether, or else treated as whitespace. I count it this way only for compatibility with certain ports of the Unix wc.