Unix Version 7 - man page for wc (v7 section 1)

WC(1)				     General Commands Manual				    WC(1)

NAME
       wc - word count

SYNOPSIS
       wc [ -lwc ] [ name ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       Wc  counts  lines, words and characters in the named files, or in the standard input if no
       name appears.  A word is a maximal string of characters delimited by spaces, tabs or  new-
       lines.

       If  the	optional  argument is present, just the specified counts (lines, words or charac-
       ters) are selected by the letters l, w, or c.

											    WC(1)