Some shortcuts are everywhere. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Z—everyone knows them. These two are just as useful and somehow still not common knowledge.
Ctrl + Backspace/Delete: delete a whole word
Pressing Backspace removes one character at a time. Holding Ctrl while pressing Backspace removes the entire word behind the cursor in one press.
Ctrl + Delete does the same thing in the forward direction—removes the word in front of the cursor.
Both work in essentially any application that accepts text input: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, email clients, browser address bars and text fields, code editors, terminal windows, chat applications. If there’s a cursor and a keyboard, these shortcuts almost certainly work.
Combined with Ctrl + Left/Right arrow—which moves the cursor an entire word at a time rather than one character—and Shift added to either direction to select as you move, these form a complete set of word-level text navigation shortcuts that significantly reduce how much time is spent on precise text editing.