diff --git a/lib/wordcount-view.coffee b/lib/wordcount-view.coffee
index 94a94b6..cd1d673 100644
--- a/lib/wordcount-view.coffee
+++ b/lib/wordcount-view.coffee
@@ -12,9 +12,12 @@ class WordcountView
 
     @element.appendChild(@divWords)
 
+    @wordregex = require('word-regex')()
+
 
   update_count: (editor) ->
     texts = @getTexts editor
+    scope = editor.getGrammar().scopeName
     wordCount = charCount = 0
     for text in texts
       text = @stripText text, editor
@@ -82,10 +85,13 @@ class WordcountView
         for pattern in blockquotePatterns
           text = text?.replace pattern, ''
 
+      # Reduce links to text
+      text = text?.replace /(?:__|[*#])|\[(.*?)\]\(.*?\)/gm, '$1'
+
     text
 
   count: (text) ->
-    words = text?.match(/\S+/g)?.length
+    words = text?.match(@wordregex)?.length
     text = text?.replace '\n', ''
     text = text?.replace '\r', ''
     chars = text?.length
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 9e98685..26a9088 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@
     "atom": ">=0.180.0"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "lodash": "^3.10.1"
+    "lodash": "^3.10.1",
+    "word-regex": "^0.1.2"
   },
   "consumedServices": {
     "status-bar": {