diff --git a/src/wordsplit.c b/src/wordsplit.c
index 86d4f4b..1045ca8 100644
--- a/src/wordsplit.c
+++ b/src/wordsplit.c
@@ -2283,7 +2283,7 @@ wordsplit_free (struct wordsplit *ws)
 }
 
 void
-wordsplit_getwords (struct wordsplit *ws, int *wordc, char ***wordv)
+wordsplit_getwords (struct wordsplit *ws, size_t *wordc, char ***wordv)
 {
   char **p = realloc (ws->ws_wordv,
 		      (ws->ws_wordc + 1) * sizeof (ws->ws_wordv[0]));
diff --git a/src/wordsplit.h b/src/wordsplit.h
index 53503a4..41b09e2 100644
--- a/src/wordsplit.h
+++ b/src/wordsplit.h
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ int wordsplit_len (const char *s, size_t len, wordsplit_t *ws, int flags);
 void wordsplit_free (wordsplit_t *ws);
 void wordsplit_free_words (wordsplit_t *ws);
 void wordsplit_free_envbuf (wordsplit_t *ws);
-void wordsplit_getwords (wordsplit_t *ws, int *wordc, char ***wordv);
+void wordsplit_getwords (wordsplit_t *ws, size_t *wordc, char ***wordv);
 
 int wordsplit_c_unquote_char (int c);
 int wordsplit_c_quote_char (int c);