The commonly accepted Bliss copy of the Gettysburg Address contains 272 words.
Lincoln delivered the address on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The speech’s brevity contrasted sharply with the lengthy oration by Edward Everett, the event’s principal speaker. Despite its short length, Lincoln framed the Civil War as a test of the nation’s founding commitment to equality and self-government.
The word count refers to the Bliss manuscript, one of five known contemporary manuscript copies associated with Lincoln. Colonel Alexander Bliss received the copy for a 1864 fundraising volume supporting soldiers and sailors. It is often considered the definitive version because Lincoln titled, signed, and dated it.
Word counts can vary if punctuation, hyphenated terms, or manuscript conventions are handled differently. That is why the answer is specifically tied to the Bliss copy rather than presented as an absolute count for every surviving version. The speech is also commonly described as having ten sentences.