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All the current x86 processors are 32-bit processors, but the wordsize is 16-bits. Most 32-bit processors have a wordsize of 32-bits.

See

b Byte (8–bit)

w Word (16–bit)

l Long (32–bit) (default)

q Quadword (64–bit)

on page 18 in x86 Assembly Language Reference Manual 1,

Table 1-5 16-bit (word) General Registers

in x86 Assembly Language Reference Manual 2

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QuantumD
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    Historical reasons for compatibility. Intel didn't want to make people change their code when they switched from 16 to 32 and then to 64 bits. – Jester Sep 21 '15 at 12:28
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    _"All the current x86 processors are 32-bit processors"_ There was a time when that wasn't the case, and the terminology remains from back then. – Michael Sep 21 '15 at 12:28
  • All current x86 processors are x86-64, capable of running in 64-bit mode. They basically don't have "a" single native word-size, and can comfortably / efficiently access data at any power-of-2 size from 1 to 32 bytes, even unaligned. – Peter Cordes Feb 28 '21 at 02:30

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