diff --git a/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim b/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim
index 42277699..4bb25635 100644
--- a/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim
+++ b/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 
 scriptencoding utf-8
 
-let s:format = get(g:, 'airline#extensions#wordcount#format', '%d words')
 let s:formatter = get(g:, 'airline#extensions#wordcount#formatter', 'default')
 let g:airline#extensions#wordcount#filetypes = get(g:, 'airline#extensions#wordcount#filetypes',
       \ '\vhelp|markdown|rst|org|text|asciidoc|tex|mail')