with the use of a helper column
=LEN(A1)

if you do not want to count spaces
=LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Kinger" wrote in message ...
I have a list of 5,000 words that I need sort by the number of letters in the
word for my students is this possible to do? The words range from 1 letter
to 9 letters in a word.