while getting a p element from DOM get the error Cannot read properties of null

Question

I need to take the text of an element from my DOM and pass it to a function. but I get an error on the line below

const status =  document.getElementById("word").innerText

the error is : Cannot read properties of null (reading 'innerText')

I am certain that the element with "word" id is not null, I can't find what the problem is or where the null comes from