“Pivotal” and “furthermore” became less common per million tokens. Comparing their rates with “however” and “thus” reduces the apparent decline. This comparison depends on the chosen words and cannot identify AI authorship.

This comparison uses the monthly vocabulary list

We use the committed monthly vocabulary extract, whose word list and counting method differ from our earlier Hacker News census. Its token totals also differ from the punctuation extract used for comment length. We compare January 2015 through October 2022 with August 2025 through July 2026.

Pivotal and furthermore became less common

“Pivotal” appears at 0.48 times its baseline rate and “furthermore” at 0.63 times. “Delving” is at 0.72 times and “underscore” at 0.76 times. The combined rate for the tracked vocabulary fell from 114.39 to 106.33 occurrences per million tokens.

Word use also declined across the broader dictionary

The broader dictionary contains 24,104 words. Its median recent-to-baseline ratio is 0.972. Declines are common in this dictionary and do not establish a change in AI use.

However and thus declined more sharply

The combined rate for “however” and “thus” fell from 437.11 occurrences per million tokens to 327.59. The baseline contains 565,092 occurrences and the recent rate is 0.749 times the baseline. These formal connectives provide a comparison but cannot represent all formal writing.

Average comments became shorter

Comments averaged 395.7 characters in the baseline period and 347.2 in the recent period. Shorter comments do not by themselves explain a change in occurrences per million tokens.

However and thus were declining before ChatGPT

The fitted annual decline in their combined rate was 2.55 percent of the baseline period's mean. The decline since November 2022 was 5.80 percent of that period's mean per year. These trends do not establish what caused the change.

The comparison changes the size of the decline

Grey bars show recent-to-baseline word-rate ratios and blue bars show the same ratios divided by the combined ratio for however and thus. Delve has an adjusted ratio of 2.50. Pivotal remains below one at 0.64; furthermore is at 0.84 and delving at 0.97.
Word-rate ratios in the Hacker News data collected on August 19 2026. August 2025 through July 2026 is compared with January 2015 through October 2022; blue bars divide each ratio by the combined ratio for “however” and “thus”. Chart generated by scripts/metrics/render-register-charts.mjs from data/hn-vocabulary-monthly.csv via data/derived/register-drift.json.

Dividing the pooled vocabulary ratio by the ratio for “however” and “thus” changes it from 0.930 to 1.240. After that adjustment “pivotal” is at 0.64 and “furthermore” at 0.84; “delving” is at 0.97. An adjusted ratio above one means the word increased relative to these connectives, even if its rate per million tokens fell.

Delve peaked briefly in spring 2026

“Delve” has the highest adjusted ratio at 2.50. It appeared 7.36 times per million tokens in March 2026 and 9.14 times in April before falling to 1.82 in May. The counts do not distinguish ordinary use from discussion of the word itself.

The comparison does not identify who wrote a comment

“However” and “thus” may change for reasons that do not apply to the tracked vocabulary. These aggregate counts cannot distinguish changes in writing habits from changes in the people commenting. They also cannot separate human writing from generated text or measure how often a model emits a word.

The vocabulary entry remains retired as a presence test

The comparison shows how a word's apparent change depends on the reference used. It does not make an isolated word a reliable sign of AI authorship. The vocabulary entry in our tell index remains retired as a presence test.