More on word choice in the medical literature

Thinking about the study I talked about in this post made me curious about how often certain words are used in the medical literature. Some quick PubMed searches today (not in any order):

• surprising[tiab] OR surprisingly[tiab] OR surprised[tiab] OR surprise[tiab] retrieves more than 45,000 citations


• startling[tiab] retrieves ~ 500 citations


• astonish*[tiab] retrieves ~ 800 citations


• astound*[tiab] retrieves a puny 200


• amaze*[tiab] OR amazing[tiab] retrieves ~650


• unexpected[tiab] OR unexpectedly[tiab] doesn't quite beat the surprise variations, at ~43,000


• dumbfound*[tiab] only works because of its genetic meaning, at ~20 citations


• and, surprising me because I thought it would be more common than some of the others, maybe too bland? interesting[tiab] retrieves ~40,000 citations