Rahul,

Say you type the phrase, "Say you type the phrase" and you format all the
"y's" with italic.

Find>Replace>More.  Check "use wildcards."

Type - * (that's an asterisk) in the find what field, click Format>Font and
select italic.

Type - ^& in the replace with field

Click "replace all"

Word will replace each italic character with itself (^& tell Word to replace
with the content of the find what field) and display the number of
replacements.