CDC's Mysterious Word List: Strange Text File Raises Questions

A perplexing text file hosted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has sparked curiosity and confusion online after being discovered by a social media user. This unusual document, which appears to have been live since 2009, contains an extensive list of seemingly random and often inappropriate words.

What Was Discovered

The file in question resides on the CDC.gov domain and contains thousands of single words arranged in a list format. The collection begins with “DAMNATORY” and includes an eclectic mix of terms ranging from medical terminology to slang, offensive language, and bizarre concepts.

While some words like “CAPILLARIES,” “BLOODLINES,” and “TUBERCULIDE” align with what one might expect from a health organization, many others stand out as inappropriate or completely unrelated to public health, including:

Casual slang terms like “GOOFBALL” and “WHOMPS”
Disturbing terms such as “TORTURED” and “DEHYPNOTIZE”
Unusual concepts including “COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES,” “SWORDPLAY,” and “NECROMANCY”
Inappropriate terms like “WHORES”
Various racial and antisemitic slurs

Possible Explanation

Based on the URL path, the file appears to be connected to the CDC’s Mortality Medical Data System (MMDS), a program developed in 1967 for processing cause-of-death information from death certificates. The subdirectory labeled “spell” suggests it might be a spell-check dictionary for this system.

However, this explanation doesn’t fully account for the inclusion of numerous offensive, nonsensical, and inappropriate words that would seemingly have no place in official death certificate processing.

Public Reaction

Social media users responded with a mix of humor and concern. One user compared it to “using a ouija board and the unabomber was on the other side,” while another joked that “First three words you see will define your 2026.”

Key Takeaways

The discovery raises questions about content oversight on government websites and what purpose such an extensive and unusual word list serves. As of the reporting, the CDC had not responded to requests for comment about the file, which has been online for over a decade.

While likely benign in purpose, the file’s content remains a curious digital artifact that seems out of place on an official government health agency website.