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  • I actually misinterpreted his original definition. I'm editing the question to reflect his exact definition Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 18:46
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    @LukeP, that doesn't change much. Word size is a property of the ISA (Instruction Set Architecture). Bus sizes is a property of the implementation of the ISA (also called micro-architecture). A bus may be wider or smaller than a word, that's not important for the programmer. The same ISA may be implemented several times, with different bus size. Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 18:54
  • but the bus is still going to be sending the same amount of information over, it just may have to be done in a different amount of "words" right? Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 18:59
  • Yes. You have to think about the ISA as the interface between software and hardware. And as most interface, its goal is to expose functionality and hide implementation. And buses (there may be several, of different width) are part of the implementation. Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 20:44