It's safe to say that Americans do not know the meaning of the word "integrity."

I speak not from vague intuition but from cold, hard evidence: It was the number one most-looked-up word in 2005 on the Merriam-Webster dictionary's website.

Do you think it's because it's used so often to describe people when "filthy, lying bastard" would be a lot more accurate that we forgot what it actually meant? Or just because we never had a clue what it meant in the first place.

2006 is going to be a year of tough questions, I can tell already.

We are also very hazy about the words REFUGEE, FILIBUSTER, TSUNAMI and LEVEE.

Hhhhhhhhhh.

Where to begin.

How about with: TSUNAMI!? Why didn't anyone tell me they stopped teaching second grade.

Secondly, refugee. Now isn't that some charming ritualistic behavior particularly associated with African tribes? Or was it that band with Lauryn Hill. I can never remember.

In 2004, we wondered what "incumbent" meant (most looked up word no. 2). We were also confused about the meaning of the word "electoral." (In case you're wondering, it's archaic in American English. It fell out of usage around the turn of the century.) We also wondered what "partisan" meant. If you still don't know, it's actually just an adjective that is commonly used in conjunction with the word "politics" to mean "business as usual."

Also, the 10th most-looked-up word was defenestration.

I'll skip over that one as I'm sure you already know what it means.

There's a lot of things I'd like to defenestrate, come to think of it. Like people who don't know what the word refugee means.

In 2003, we had a burning desire to know the meaning of the word "democracy." We went to war to force this form of government on another country. But we don't actually know what it means ourselves.

I hope there were a few military.gov domains checking out that word. ("Freedom of the press means freedom to buy the press, right?")

The second-most-looked up word was "quagmire." Apparently there were a lot of 7th graders researching the Vietnam War. Oh wait. They were just reading the news.

Also, notably, we were inspired to look up the definition of the word "marriage" (no. 5 most looked up in '03). Unfortunately for those looking for proof that marriage was officially defined as a union between a man and a woman, M-W's second definition of the first sense of the word is:

(2) : the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage

Hah! Cue conspiracy theory that left-leaning lexicographers are plotting to take over the country.