Searching for "integrity".... and other words.

"Integrity" is the most looked-up word of the last year, according to one on-line dictionary. There are words you look up because you don't know what they mean at all, and words -- like "integrity," I'm sure -- that you basically know but, for some reason, want a precise or authoritative definition of. I think it's rather touching that so many people were looking up "integrity." Were they searching for the right path in their own lives? Or were they just framing arguments against their opponents? I picture a web full of indignant political bloggers and guess that it's the latter.

Other words that made the list suggest that the news is what drives large numbers of dictionary users to the same word: filibuster, refugee, tsunami, levee, pandemic, conclave, inept. "Conclave" is pope-related. "Inept"? It's got to be Bush-related.