How many bits is a WORD and is that constant over different architectures?

Question

Is a machine WORD always the same or does it depend on the machine architecture? And is the meaning of the word WORD context sensitive or generally applicable?

Answer 1

My understanding is that a WORD is the amount of bits that can be shoved into the CPU with one action (on a particular machine), so in a 8bit-architecture it is 8 bits and on a modern 64-bit architecture it is 64 bits.