"Integrity" rules!

If you were asked which word in the English language was looked up most often on Merriam-Webster's online dictionary in 2005, what would you guess?

Would you guess inept? Sorry, that was only No. 10 on the list. By tracking when various words got the most hits, the Merriam-Webster editors linked the popularity of that word to a prime-time news conference by President Bush that ended with the networks cutting away to regular programming.

In a year of disasters, you'd be on the right track to guess that refugee, tsunami, and levee were popular searches. But those words were Nos. 2, 6, and 9 respectively. Likewise, with all the news stories about bird flu, the word pandemic would be a good guess, but it was only No. 7.

How about contempt or filibuster? The CIA leak probe in Washington landed New York Times reporter Judith Miller in jail for contempt of court. And judicial filibusters were a huge issue in the nation's capital. But those words were only Nos. 3 and 4 respectively.

The election of Pope Benedict XVI during a conclave in the spring sparked a lot of curiosity, but that word came in at No. 8.

Would you have guessed insipid? I wouldn't have. But after American Idol judge Simon Cowell used that term to describe a performance, lots and lots of people went looking for the definition, enough to make it the fifth most looked-up word on www.merriam-webster.com.

No, the word that drew the most hits this year was one that seemed to be a part of discussions across many segments of society: integrity. Almost 200,000 people went looking for a definition of integrity this year, the Merriam-Webster folks say. They attribute the word's popularity to a concern about values and morality.

Of course, they needn't have gone to Merriam-Webster for a definition of that word. They can find it on the home page of my business: www.integrityeditorial.com.