size_t in C – Understanding Pointer Size

size_t is a type that can hold any array index. This means that, logically, size_t should be able to hold any pointer type

Not necessarily! Hark back to the days of segmented 16-bit architectures for example: an array might be limited to a single segment (so a 16-bit size_t would do) BUT you could have multiple segments (so a 32-bit intptr_t type would be needed to pick the segment as well as the offset within it). I know these things sound weird in these days of uniformly addressable unsegmented architectures, but the standard MUST cater for a wider variety than "what's normal in 2009", you know!-)

From Wikipedia:

According to the 1999 ISO C standard (C99), size_t is an unsigned integer type of at least 16 bit (see sections 7.17 and 7.18.3).

size_t is an unsigned data type defined by several C/C++ standards, e.g. the C99 ISO/IEC 9899 standard, that is defined in stddef.h¹. It can be further imported by inclusion of stdlib.h as this file internally sub includes stddef.h.

This type is used to represent the size of an object. Library functions that take or return sizes expect them to be of type or have the return type of size_t. Further, the most frequently used compiler-based operator sizeof should evaluate to a constant value that is compatible with size_t.

As an implication, size_t is a type guaranteed to hold any array index.