This has always been an issue, but with the beta, I think it’s time to comment. The Microsoft Word count doesn’t match Scrivener, because Scrivener counts hyphenated words as two words. That’s wrong. The words pickup and pick-up are two perfectly good words with different meanings. I do not have three words there, but Scrivener will tell me I do. That should be a simple fix, right?
It’s simple when all hyphenated compound words should be treated as one word but what about two-word adjectives like those in “load-bearing wall” or “rock-hard cake”
As @Lifyre said, I believe this is to do with different word counting procedures. See: https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/word-count-not-the-same-in-word-docx/42114/5
Two-word adjectives are one word. As our language progresses, two words often become one word with a hyphen, then one word without the hyphen. In the early 1900s, “today” was spelled as two words “to day.” There’s a difference between playing in the back yard (two words) and having a backyard barbeque (one word). A many wearing an orange suit might be known as an orange (one word) juice salesman. But if he works for a juice company, we have an orange-juice salesman (one word). An adjective cannot modify an adjective, so to make it one word, we use the hyphen. It’s just wrong to count it as two words. I’m at a distinct disadvantage to ever argue with the pundits that they are wrong and Scrivener is right.