You could start with something you're sure is too low and then use . to repeat the command. Like d3w and then press . repeatedly until you get close enough that

You could start with something you're sure is too low and then use . to repeat the command. Like d3w and then press . repeatedly until you get close enough that it's one word (dw) or you can see exactly how many it is. Similarly for lines. 4dd, ., ., ., and so on. Of course, this only makes sense for deletion, not for changing or for movement (because the . to repeat a command is commonly not what you intended for changes and doesn't apply at all to pure movement actions).