Know. Here. More. The top 100 words used in 2015 commencement speeches are oddly inspiring, even out of context
LatestIs there a formula for inspiration? If so it involves these words: know, here, more, life. They top the list of the 100 most common words used in commencement speeches this year:
We analyzed the transcripts of 30 high-profile commencement addresses delivered this spring. In alphabetical order:
- Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Tufts University
- Actor Alan Alda at Carnegie Mellon
- Second Lady Jill Biden at Central Piedmont Community College
- Vice President Joe Biden at Yale Class Day
- Major General Charles F. Bolden at Gettysburg College
- Journalist and news anchor Tom Brokaw at High Point University
- Filmmaker Ken Burns at Washington University in St. Louis
- Former President George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University
- Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at Liberty University
- Comedian Stephen Colbert at Wake Forest University
- Apple CEO Tim Cook at the George Washington University
- Journalist and TV host Katie Couric at UW-Madison
- Actress Stephanie Courtney (best known as Progressive Insurance’s Flo) at Binghamton University
- Archbishop Blase J. Cupich at Boston College
- Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at Georgia Tech
- Attorney Kenneth Feinberg at Stonehill College
- DreamWorks chairwoman Mellody Hobson at USC
- Founding Hulu CEO Jason Kilar at UNC
- Actor Matthew McConaughey at the University of Houston
- Novelist Ian McEwan at Dickinson College
- Science educator and TV personality Bill Nye at Rutgers University
- President Barack Obama at Lake Area Technical Institute
- First Lady Michelle Obama at Tuskegee University
- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell at Rice University
- UN Ambassador Samantha Power at UPenn
- Newscaster (and anchor of Fusion’s America) Jorge Ramos at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
- Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at Saint Anselm College
- Entertainer Maya Rudolph at Tulane University
- Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel at USC Marshall
- Journalist and TV host Meredith Vieira at Boston University
The combined length of these remarks was nearly 80,000 words. In case you were wondering, “congratulations” was said only 35 times (narrowly cracking the top 200 words) and “congrats” just twice.
Commencement speakers talk more about the students they’re addressing than themselves, but only barely. We found that the second-person pronouns “you,” “your,” and “yours” were used just 4.7% more than the first-person pronouns “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine.”
These addresses aren’t always as squeaky clean as the university administrations might like. In our sample, “hell” was said 14 times, although mostly in direct quotations from the likes of Churchill, Twain, and Shakespeare. “Damn” was heard three times. “Shit” made four appearances and “bullshit” once — all, wonderfully, in Matthew McConaughey’s speech at UH.
Here are the top 100 words in order, ranked by the number of times they were used across all 30 speeches. Prepare your graduation ceremony bingo cards accordingly:
Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.