The Most-Searched Debate Terms Are A National Cry For Help

Many powers are actually unavailable to the president, at least in countries like the United States, but the power to set the national tone isn’t one of them. President Theodore Roosevelt famously called the presidential platform “the bully pulpit”; when the White House speaks, people listen.

As our two White House hopefuls spoke during Wednesday’s third and final presidential debate, the nation hung on every word. Any political debate has the potential to get into territory unfamiliar to the average listener ― arcane policy details, for example ― but in case anyone wasn’t clear on this, the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set a far more apocalyptic and potentially authoritarian tone.

Merriam-Webster took note of spikes in lookups on their online dictionary during the debate, and the results are nothing less than a tragic expression of our collective horror and confusion:

Rig

Lookups for “rig” spiked 3,000 percent after Trump used the term.

Hombre

Lookups for “hombre” rose 120,000 percent after Trump used the word, and topped out at 150,000 percent over average. (The full context for that: during an answer about immigration, he responded, “We have some bad hombres here and we’re going to get them out.” Got it.)

Debunk

“Debunk” lookups shot up 6,600 percent after both candidates used it to dismiss claims made during the debate.

Sleazy

Both spellings of “sleazy” trended; lookups for the less common spelling, “sleezy” were up 10,700 percent.

As a far preferable version of Trump might say:

Election rigging, lie debunking, throwing around insinuations that Latino immigrants are criminal elements and opponents are “sleazy” (and, lest we forget, “nasty”) ― these are the standout moments that have sent Americans to Google for more information.

By now, even our dictionary lookups are staring back at us reproachfully. Is it too late now to just search ombré instead?