In 2014, you may have seen our analysis of what words are most looked up in certain US cities. We found that Boston was looking up fender-bender and Dallas was looking up peep. Last year we took that approach to a different sort of community: college campuses. This year in honor of March Madness, we decided to take another look at college campuses. What words are students at Dartmouth or Baylor or the University of Miami looking up? Are there differences in the kinds of words students at different schools look up? To determine what words universities look up the most, we isolated Dictionary.com searches for 2015 in zip codes associated with these campuses and in zip codes near these schools that have high concentrations of college students as determined by US census data. Do you know why these words were popular at these schools? Let us know in the comments! Baylor University: phlegmatic Boston College: irascibly Boston University: measurement Brown University: trust Columbia University: barter Cornell University: amiable Dartmouth College: bare DePaul University: wreaking Duke University: encomium Gonzaga University: last Harvard University: fat Indiana University Bloomington: comport Iowa State University: photoautotroph Northeastern University: metaphor University of Notre Dame: judeo-christian Princeton University: abode Providence College: contender Rice University: hopeful Sam Houston State University: environment Smith College: sparkle Southern Methodist University: godspeed Texas A&M University: computer Texas State University: utilitarianism Tufts College: onomatopoeia University of Houston: ethics University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign: imperative University of Kansas: precipitation University of Maryland, College Park: exigence University of Miami: historical novels University of New Hampshire: awesome University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: chagrined University of Oklahoma: hydrate University of Oregon: hurricane University of Pennsylvania: niche University of Texas: masochist University of Vermont: knowledge University of Virginia: reprisal University of Wisconsin-Madison: physique Villanova University: ambivalent Wellesley College: dissolve Yale University: ambiguous
41 Comments
Where is University of California Berkeley??
In place of FACTS, colleges are teaching students what their OPINIONS should be. If this was the first generation to do so, then these kids would have learned all of these definitions in primary school. But sadly, these students are victims of their parents laziness.
I feel like the title may be describing the colleges in a word of the year 2016 because there is no way that these universities are searching the definitions of these words…I don’t buy it.
tsk.
? ?
Does no one see that it says that they put the schools with “2015″ in the zip code? “Peeps,” please read the whole thing before posting a comment!
“Tufts College: onomatopoeia” Did y’all just forget everything about primary school up there? I have a hard time believing Scholars are needing to look up these words.
I am amazed that these are the words most looked up at colleges, and even more amazed that no one else seems to be remarking on the results.
Apparently I a masochist ethics metaphor that could’ve been fat. Wow…this article is really offensive and leaves out alot of great schools. Who writes this shit?
Language, please. It may be offensive, but please, the language.
Did you even read the description?!?
nice page
Yah its a nice page
great
I+LOVE U ALL
what about Arizona State University. =} gosh
Are you sure?
Where is Stanford and MIT???
Why are you asking? You obviously don’t go to either of those schools…
Stanford didn’t make the March Madness tournament.
My ardahan üniversite
you guys should make a search network for it so that people can see what their towns are looking up most.
What campus is shown in the photo?
Ha, got em
balliol college oxford, England.
Variant definition of photoautotroph: one whose ego feeds on taking selfies – yuk. yuk. yuk.
THAT is an AWFUL joke
Why did the chicken (Donald Trump) cross the road? to get to the other side! hahahaha not!
not funny
asdasd
I love my india
No one has a coin in Columbia now…thats the reason.
I love this, thanks Dictionary.com
It’s great to hear that our number one university had the most intellectually stimulating word: ‘fat’
missing – Syracuse University
if universities actually studied words these days our economy wouldn’t have to be burdened by colleges
ken you obviously don’t realise that words are what gets in the way of our college students’ thinking processes
GOOD point. And camels will have to bear the burdens.
?????
I think I’m the first person to see this article at 10:53 am on March 24, 2016.
K
fake!!!!!!!!!!!