You don't have to release CTRL key between step 1 & 2. So you can reduce one more key stroke, if you're not doing this yet.
Commented Jun 1, 2015 at 5:09The question and the answers here are not smoothly, because the space at the end of the selected word is also selected, which should be avoided in my opinion. At least you should mention this obstacle in the question.
Commented Apr 5, 2022 at 10:12On macOS, create a file ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with the following content:
If the file already exists, add the second line above within its top-level braces.
Restart (quit and start again) an app to apply new key bindings.
Now you can press ^w ( Control-W ) in any native application (i.e. not Firefox, Eclipse, etc.) to have it select the current word.
You can customize the shortcut, ^ is Control, ~ Option, $ Shift, @ Command.
Some applications include menu items for this action. TextMate, for example, uses the ^w shortcut for Edit » Select » Word by default.