--- title: Donald Trump Makes Dictionary Lookups for 'Treason' Spike description: Trump, and the reactions people have had to Trump, have sent people running to the dictionary all election canonical: https://time.com/4426705/donald-trump-treason-dictionary/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-27T19:59:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:57:20.074Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Comments Make Dictionary Lookups for 'Treason' Spike og:description: The Republican nominee has sent people running to the dictionary all year. og:url: https://time.com/4426705/donald-trump-treason-dictionary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd27c9d0f8adbf143/69889fc6cd1bba26e8701b0a/gettyimages-488226322.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Dallas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Comments Make Dictionary Lookups for 'Treason' Spike twitter:description: The Republican nominee has sent people running to the dictionary all year. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd27c9d0f8adbf143/69889fc6cd1bba26e8701b0a/gettyimages-488226322.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Comments Make Dictionary Lookups for 'Treason' Spike by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jul 27, 2016 7:59 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the American Airlines Center on September 14, 2015 in Dallas, Texas.Tom Pennington & Getty Images by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jul 27, 2016 7:59 PM UTC On Wednesday morning, Merriam-Webster announced that Donald Trump had done it yet again. After the Republican nominee [appeared to suggest](http://time.com/4426272/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-russia-emails/) that Russia should commit a cybercrime against Hillary Clinton, the dictionary’s editors watched lookups for a single word spike in response to something Trump had done. This time there was a 76% increase for the term [**_treason_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treason). That’s not a word Trump used but one that social media users started tapping out in response to Trump saying at a press conference, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” He also said he “hoped” Russia had the Democratic National Committee’s [hacked emails](http://time.com/4422673/dnc-hack-cybersecurity/). The Clinton campaign responded by saying he was encouraging “espionage.” Twitter meanwhile, reacted by invoking a word used to describe the act of committing crimes that help one’s enemies: The hashtag #TreasonousTrump was trending by Wednesday afternoon. Trump has sent people running to the dictionary all election. During a debate in January, Trump caused a spike for the word [**_bimbo_**](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bimbo?s=t) (an attractive but stupid young woman) when he said he refused to use that word to describe Fox News host Megyn Kelly. That same month, Dictionary.com editors also saw lookups for the word [**_pugnacious_**](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pugnacious) blow up because people were using that adjective—which means inclined to quarrel or fight—to describe the man who was describing many other people with terms like “loser” and “low-energy.” Trump inspired many Americans to query the verb [**_schlong_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/schlong)after [he said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/22/donald-trumps-schlonged-a-linguistic-investigation/) that Hillary Clinton had been the object of such an action during the 2008 primary. And he increased America’s vocabulary by accusing fellow candidates of “[**_collusion_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/collusion-2016-04-26)” when they formed an alliance against him. Among the words that Merriam-Webster has tracked, more have come from critics and pundits describing Trump than from straight Trump quotes. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter gave [**_radicalize_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/radicalize-2015-12-09) a boost by accusing Trump of trying to radicalize Americans against Muslims by calling for a ban on Muslim immigrants. News consumers also wondered what it meant that, for a time, Trump did not “[**_disavow_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/disavow-2016-02-29)” white supremacists, as well as what it meant when reporters described Trump as a “[**_tycoon_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/tycoon-2016-02-24).” Anti-Trumpers propelled lookups for [**_trumpery_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/trumpery-2016-03-03)**_,_** delighting in the word’s definition of “something fallaciously splendid.” Others did the same by calling Trump “[**_puerile_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/puerile-2016-03-03)” (New York Times columnist), a “[**_sniveling_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/sniveling-2016-03-25)coward” (former adversary Ted Cruz), a “[**_demagogue_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/demagogue-2016-05-31)**“** (scientist Stephen Hawking) and a man who used his convention speech to paint a “[**_dystopian_**](http://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/trumps-speech-described-as-dystopian-20160722)nightmare” of what life in America is like (late night talk show host Seth Myers). As linguist Ben Zimmer says of the words that have been spiking this season, “they’re not rare words but they’re the words that might require a little unpacking.” And so it makes sense that most of them aren’t coming directly from Trump, whose much-beloved and much-mocked straight-talkin’ speech often hovers around the fourth-grade reading level. He has said outright that he’s not one for the kind of big, fancy words that might require a dictionary consultation (though he does reserve the right to know them). “I used to use the word _incompetent_. Now I just call them ‘stupid,'” he said in December of describing the likes of Hillary Clinton’s State Department. “I went to an Ivy League school. I’m very highly educated. I know words—I have the best words. But there’s no better word than _stupid_.” The crowd in Hilton Head, S.C., erupted in applause. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4426705/donald-trump-treason-dictionary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4426705/donald-trump-treason-dictionary/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Comments Make Dictionary Lookups for 'Treason' Spike","datePublished":"2016-07-27T19:59:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:57:20.074Z","description":"Trump, and the reactions people have had to Trump, have sent people running to the dictionary all election","url":"https://time.com/4426705/donald-trump-treason-dictionary/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","language","jeb bush"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd27c9d0f8adbf143/69889fc6cd1bba26e8701b0a/gettyimages-488226322.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd27c9d0f8adbf143/69889fc6cd1bba26e8701b0a/gettyimages-488226322.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Dallas","caption":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Dallas","creditText":"Tom Pennington & Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4426705/donald-trump-treason-dictionary/","name":"Donald Trump's Comments Make Dictionary Lookups for 'Treason' Spike"}}]}] ```