The First Democratic Debate: Candidates' Most Relevant Words

For the Democratic presidential debate of Oct. 14, 2015, we surveyed the candidates’ vocabulary, determining their most relevant words according to an analysis of the debate transcript. For more, see: " What Were the 'Vocabulary Moments' of the First Democratic Debate?"
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. amok
    wildly; without self-control
    And it's our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn't run amok and doesn't cause the kind of inequities we're seeing in our economic system. – Hillary Clinton
  2. inequity
    injustice by virtue of not conforming with standards
    And it's our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn't run amok and doesn't cause the kind of inequities we're seeing in our economic system. – Hillary Clinton
  3. quagmire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    Well, let's understand that when we talk about Syria, you're talking about a quagmire in a quagmire. – Bernie Sanders
  4. amnesia
    partial or total loss of memory
    And I know my Republican friends seem to have some amnesia on this issue, but ... the world's financial markets system was on the verge of collapse. – Bernie Sanders
  5. denigrate
    attack the good name and reputation of someone
    On this stage, you didn't hear anyone denigrate women, you didn't hear anyone make racist comments about new American immigrants, you didn't hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious belief. – Martin O'Malley
  6. immigrant
    a person who comes to a country in order to settle there
    On this stage, you didn't hear anyone denigrate women, you didn't hear anyone make racist comments about new American immigrants, you didn't hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious belief. – Martin O'Malley
  7. inevitability
    the quality of being unavoidable
    To me it is the inevitability of something like Benghazi occurring in the way that we intervened in Libya. – Jim Webb
  8. clarification
    the act of removing solid particles from a liquid
    And as a clarification, I have always supported affirmative action for African Americans. – Jim Webb
  9. echelon
    a body of troops arranged in a line
    So let's go back to the tax code. And 0.6 percent of Americans are at the top echelon.. But they generate 30 percent of the revenue. And they're doing fine... So there's still a lot more money to be had from this top echelon. – Lincoln Chafee
  10. paradigm
    the generally accepted perspective of a discipline
    We've got to stop these wars. You have to have a new dynamic, a new paradigm. – Lincoln Chafee
Created on October 14, 2015 (updated October 14, 2015)

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