Tool 02 · Distinctive words
Pick two groups of documents: two candidates, two election cycles, or one group against everything else. Each word gets a z-score from the “Fightin' Words” method (Monroe, Colaresi and Quinn, 2008): how much more often one group uses it than the other, shrunk towards the whole archive so rare words do not dominate.
Group A
All speakers, 2016 cycle
2,386 documents · 576.7K indexed words
Group B
All speakers, 2024 cycle
1,730 documents · 674.4K indexed words
Words beyond |z| = 1.96
4,230
of 16,298 words used by either group · about 815 would pass by chance · 1,804 beyond 3.29
Prior strength α₀
10,000
pseudo-words from the whole archive
1,184 words shown; the labelled ones lead each list
Common words can reach large z-scores with small differences; rare words need big ones. The horizontal rules mark z = ±1.96.
Select a word to see the documents that use it most.
| Word | z-score | A /10k | B /10k |
|---|---|---|---|
| hillary | 37.8 | 50.3 | 2.2 |
| clinton | 37.3 | 52.4 | 1.8 |
| county | 34.3 | 38.2 | 5.9 |
| sanders | 25.6 | 40.6 | 0.3 |
| ted | 24.1 | 18.5 | 1.3 |
| jobs | 24.0 | 29.2 | 9.5 |
| campaign | 23.9 | 50.1 | 23.6 |
| cruz | 23.7 | 34.7 | 0.3 |
| john | 21.1 | 18.0 | 4.6 |
| secretary | 20.6 | 14.5 | 2.6 |
| obama | 20.5 | 15.0 | 3.1 |
| trade | 20.0 | 15.7 | 3.8 |
| ohio | 19.7 | 12.2 | 1.0 |
| bernie | 18.5 | 13.2 | 0.4 |
| percent | 17.5 | 18.3 | 6.9 |
| public | 17.1 | 14.2 | 4.4 |
| senator | 17.0 | 16.8 | 6.2 |
| system | 17.0 | 13.4 | 4.0 |
| february | 16.6 | 8.7 | 0.7 |
| kasich | 16.4 | 29.0 | 0.0 |
| democratic | 16.1 | 10.7 | 2.8 |
| com | 15.9 | 7.9 | 0.9 |
| isis | 15.9 | 8.0 | 1.0 |
| co | 15.6 | 8.8 | 1.8 |
| health | 15.6 | 14.7 | 5.5 |
| sen | 15.5 | 9.5 | 2.3 |
| change | 15.1 | 14.4 | 5.6 |
| street | 14.9 | 10.4 | 3.1 |
| march | 14.9 | 7.5 | 1.3 |
| christie | 14.6 | 6.7 | 0.6 |
Select a word to see the documents that use it most.
| Word | z-score | A /10k | B /10k |
|---|---|---|---|
| biden | 30.0 | 0.4 | 41.8 |
| haley | 28.8 | 0.2 | 76.0 |
| china | 26.3 | 5.9 | 27.8 |
| joe | 25.6 | 1.2 | 23.4 |
| border | 25.1 | 4.9 | 24.7 |
| thank | 23.7 | 15.6 | 39.0 |
| ron | 22.3 | 1.1 | 18.7 |
| nikki | 21.2 | 0.1 | 42.9 |
| thing | 19.8 | 7.4 | 21.9 |
| desantis | 19.2 | 0.0 | 44.3 |
| gonna | 18.4 | 1.9 | 12.3 |
| done | 18.4 | 10.5 | 25.2 |
| lot | 18.3 | 14.1 | 30.2 |
| guy | 17.9 | 3.1 | 13.5 |
| back | 17.5 | 23.7 | 42.2 |
| freedom | 17.4 | 4.4 | 14.9 |
| tim | 17.3 | 2.4 | 11.8 |
| good | 16.2 | 18.3 | 33.6 |
| love | 16.1 | 7.6 | 18.6 |
| israel | 16.0 | 6.2 | 16.4 |
| hell | 16.0 | 0.8 | 9.1 |
| scott | 16.0 | 2.6 | 11.0 |
| right | 15.8 | 30.0 | 48.0 |
| okay | 15.6 | 0.7 | 8.7 |
| florida | 15.3 | 8.3 | 19.0 |
| never | 15.0 | 17.6 | 31.3 |
| left | 14.9 | 6.3 | 15.6 |
| hamas | 14.8 | 0.6 | 7.8 |
| want | 14.7 | 34.9 | 52.5 |
| news | 14.3 | 7.8 | 17.2 |
How stable are these lists?
Resampling documents and recomputing both lists…
All speakers, 2016 cycle
Remarks at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 19×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Remarks at J.S Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 9×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Remarks at Radisson Armory in Manchester, New Hampshire
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 9×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Remarks at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion in Ocala, Florida
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 9×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
All speakers, 2024 cycle
Remarks at a Campaign Rally in Erie, Pennsylvania
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 26×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Remarks at a "Save America" Rally in Greenwood, Nebraska
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 25×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Remarks at a Campaign Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 24×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Donald J. Trump (1st Term)used 21×Read on APP (opens The American Presidency Project in a new tab)
200 resamples of documents · seed 20261010
The z-score treats every word as an independent draw, but one press release can repeat a word dozens of times. So the documents in each group were resampled with replacement and both lists recomputed each time. A word kept in nearly every resample does not depend on a few documents. A highlighted word is tagged with the reason: “unstable rank” when it stays in the list in under half of the resamples (often a word near the cut-off), “one doc ≥25%” when a single document supplies a quarter or more of its uses.
21 of 30 words stay in the top 30 in at least 90% of resamples.
| Word | Kept in top 30 | z, 95% range | Docs | Top doc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hillary | 100% | 35.1 to 40.8 | 874 | 2% |
| clinton | 100% | 34.1 to 39.7 | 888 | 1% |
| countyone doc ≥25% | 96% | 13.5 to 46.5 | 206 | 30% |
| sanders | 100% | 23.5 to 28.0 | 516 | 1% |
| ted | 100% | 18.5 to 26.1 | 413 | 1% |
| jobs | 100% | 19.6 to 27.5 | 410 | 3% |
| campaign | 100% | 19.6 to 28.2 | 1,087 | 1% |
| cruz | 100% | 20.6 to 26.4 | 468 | 2% |
| john | 100% | 18.3 to 23.5 | 525 | 2% |
| secretary | 100% | 19.1 to 22.5 | 406 | 2% |
| obama | 100% | 18.6 to 22.3 | 390 | 2% |
| trade | 100% | 16.0 to 23.7 | 199 | 8% |
| ohio | 100% | 17.7 to 21.7 | 321 | 9% |
| bernie | 100% | 16.7 to 20.3 | 480 | 2% |
| percent | 95% | 13.7 to 21.0 | 347 | 2% |
| public | 96% | 14.4 to 19.3 | 426 | 3% |
| senator | 98% | 14.4 to 19.9 | 461 | 2% |
| system | 98% | 14.7 to 19.3 | 366 | 2% |
| february | 100% | 15.2 to 18.0 | 235 | 2% |
| kasich | 100% | 15.0 to 17.8 | 403 | 1% |
| democratic | 92% | 13.3 to 18.0 | 366 | 2% |
| com | 90% | 14.0 to 17.6 | 201 | 5% |
| isis | 85% | 13.5 to 18.7 | 157 | 7% |
| co | 65% | 11.6 to 19.8 | 228 | 14% |
| health | 75% | 12.3 to 18.4 | 315 | 3% |
| sen | 85% | 13.3 to 17.6 | 372 | 2% |
| change | 62% | 12.8 to 17.3 | 368 | 3% |
| street | 60% | 12.2 to 18.2 | 265 | 8% |
| march | 61% | 12.4 to 17.0 | 212 | 5% |
| christieunstable rank | 49% | 11.6 to 16.7 | 80 | 8% |
19 of 30 words stay in the top 30 in at least 90% of resamples.
| Word | Kept in top 30 | z, 95% range | Docs | Top doc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| biden | 100% | 28.6 to 31.5 | 778 | 2% |
| haley | 100% | 26.3 to 30.9 | 934 | 1% |
| china | 100% | 23.4 to 29.0 |
With 200 resamples a kept share has a Monte Carlo standard error of at most 3.5 percentage points. The z range is the 2.5th to 97.5th percentile of the word's z-score across resamples, signed so that larger means leaning further towards that column's group. Prior and α₀ are held fixed.
| 422 |
| 4% |
| joe | 100% | 24.1 to 27.2 | 582 | 3% |
| border | 100% | 23.0 to 26.8 | 415 | 2% |
| thank | 100% | 19.0 to 27.5 | 235 | 3% |
| ron | 100% | 19.7 to 24.1 | 587 | 1% |
| nikki | 100% | 19.1 to 23.3 | 936 | 1% |
| thing | 100% | 16.8 to 23.1 | 429 | 7% |
| desantis | 100% | 18.6 to 19.7 | 614 | 2% |
| gonna | 95% | 11.8 to 22.3 | 103 | 17% |
| done | 100% | 16.4 to 20.6 | 534 | 2% |
| lot | 100% | 14.8 to 21.7 | 444 | 3% |
| guy | 98% | 14.4 to 21.1 | 175 | 10% |
| back | 98% | 14.6 to 20.4 | 709 | 2% |
| freedom | 96% | 13.9 to 20.2 | 304 | 2% |
| tim | 98% | 14.8 to 19.3 | 264 | 3% |
| good | 86% | 12.5 to 19.5 | 491 | 3% |
| love | 86% | 13.2 to 18.8 | 252 | 2% |
| israel | 65% | 9.9 to 21.1 | 241 | 5% |
| hell | 95% | 14.1 to 17.7 | 107 | 5% |
| scott | 87% | 12.8 to 18.3 | 269 | 4% |
| right | 74% | 12.1 to 19.5 | 643 | 3% |
| okay | 93% | 14.2 to 16.8 | 155 | 6% |
| florida | 65% | 10.6 to 19.5 | 419 | 4% |
| never | 67% | 10.9 to 18.9 | 479 | 4% |
| left | 68% | 12.5 to 17.1 | 355 | 3% |
| hamas | 56% | 12.6 to 16.5 | 148 | 4% |
| want | 56% | 10.7 to 18.7 | 687 | 2% |
| newsunstable rank | 44% | 11.4 to 16.7 | 541 | 1% |