Microprocessors have internal data pathways and internal registers with a fixed number of bits. An 32 bit processor will process 32 bit words, a 64 bit processor will process 64 bit words. The internal registers are sized to accommodate the word length with a single transfer. Generally, the more bits a processor can handle, the faster it can run. Smaller microprocessors might only process only 8 bits or less.
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en.wikipedia.org
For more, see
en.wikipedia.org