By Robert Oliphant Columnist EdNews.org

Corruption, corruption, corruption — our exit-pollsters have let the genie out of the bottle and mentioned the unmentionable, namely, the substantial top-of-the-list American concern with the trustworthiness of its institutions, ranging from government and health care down to our schools, newspapers, and even the daily crossword puzzle.At a time when gerontologists are airily recommending crossword puzzles to Alzheimer's-fearful senior citizens, the things certainly deserve closer inspection than they've been getting lately.

Authority. . . . If one checks older published versions of the New York Times crossword puzzle (still available in bookstores and libraries), it's clear that most of the correct answers that were given back then still match up with the ordinary words and proper names (people and places) that appear in a family size dictionary.Today, though, crossword designers give themselves far more off-the-wall latitude in phrasing their definitions and picking their celebrities.Consequently, even though the American crossword still calls itself "an SAT test for grown ups," its emphasis is less centrist than it was 20 years ago.Fun for some, but less significant than Saddoku — that's the invisible motto of the American crossword today.

Relevance. . . . The traditional importance of crossword puzzles can be summed up in one phrase: Multiple Meanings.In real life we run the risk of being diagnosed as "confused" if we can't recognize the figurative meaning of HEAD in the proverb "Two heads are better than one."And we certainly put ourselves and other drivers at risk if we can't recognize what SLOW is (verb or adjective) in the highway sign: "slow. . . . trucks. . . . ahead" (college students split down the middle on this one, I have discovered).The more that a crossword puzzle challenges our grasp of unfamiliar meanings for familiar word-shapes, the more it helps to strengthen our ability to comprehend what we read and hear.

Transparency. . . . If men are from Mars and women from Venus, crossword puzzles and other kinds of verbal-fluency tests are from Alpha Centauri.This is to say that the process used to construct the things is highly mysterious and difficult to reproduce.Consequently, now that crossword puzzles are beginning to lose their perceived authority and relevance, Americans have good reason to consider new kinds of crossword-style activity.Appendices Two and Three therefore presents a dictionary based do-it-yourself system for crossword-style test construction, along with a sample test at a middle level of difficulty.

TO CONCLUDE. . . . There's nothing fancy about Appendices Two and Three.Nor is there anything fancy about this article, which up to this point contains less than 450 words.Here's hoping others will put it to the test. . . . and that it will work for them as well as it has worked on my own trial runs during the last few months.

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APPENDIX ONE. . . . A comparison of word-frequency estimates

Preliminary note. . . .This sample presents the multi-definition (words in pages 193-206 of Webster's New Word Dictionary, 3rd edition, 1986 (WNW).The first number (one or two digits) following each word represents its current frequency-of-occurrence rank in American English as indicated by the number of definitions listed for it in the American Heritage College Dictionary, 4th edition, 2004.The second number (2 to 5 digits) represents its frequency-of-occurrence rank according to www.wordcount.com, an online searchable version (80,000 words) of the British National Corpus (BNC), which is based upon a computer tabulation of 600 million word-occurrences.

BNC differs from American Heritage in counting related forms (e.g., cane & canes) and proper names (dalgleish and wedgewood) as separate words.Overall, though, the correlation between definition-based ranking and the BNC ranking is close enough to justify using a word's number of definitions in a family-size dictionary as an indication of its relative frequency of use in American speech and writing.

WNW and BNC Frequency-Rankings

(Note: words with fewer than 5 definitions in WNW, pp. 193-206) have been omitted)

Call.... 19.... 485

Cable.... 11.... 4466

Can(2).... 10.... 49

Camp.... 9.... 2831

Cancel....9.... 7665

Cannon.... 9.... 9416

Cap.... 9.... 4114

Capacity.... 9.... 718

Cabinet.... 8.... 1576

Capacity.... 8.... 1751

Capitalize.... 8.... 31722

Calculate.... 7.... 6903

Cane.... 7.... 11721

Canker.... 7.... 70169

Cadet.... 6.... 18323

Cage.... 6.... 10916

Canny.... 6.... 18439

Canopy.... 6.... 13731

Canteen.... 6.... 19429

Cab.... 5.... 5198

Cabin.... 5.... 14758

Cachet.... 5.... 24651

Cadence.... 5.... 9679

Caisson.... 5.... 41015

Calm.... 5.... 5241

Cancer.... 5.... 455

Candy.... 5.... 795

Canvas.... 5.... 8553

Capillary....5.... 11527

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APPENDIX TWO. . . . A five-question multiple meaning vocabulary quiz

Q1) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is CON*****.It is a noun.It is the 5^thnumbered definition in a group of 5.The wording of that definition is "sexual intercourse."

Q2) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is FR**.It is an adjective.It is the 14^th numbered definition in a group of 22.The wording of that definition is "unoccupied."

Q3) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is L**.It is a noun.It is the 11th numbered definition in a group of 15.The wording of that definition is "a way of life."

Q4) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is M***.It is a transitive verb.It is the 19^th numbered definition in a group of 41.The wording of that definition is "to add up to."

Q5) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is RES****.It is a noun.It is the 2^nd numbered definition in a group of 9.The wording of that definition is "to avoid violation of."

Answers: Q1 [CONGRESS], Q2 [FREE], Q3 [LAW], Q4 [MAKE], Q5 [RESPECT]

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APPENDIX THREE. . . . How to construct dictionary-based multiple meaning questions

Preliminaries. . . . A multiple meaning mini-quiz, like a spelling bee, can take place using the spoken word.But it also, like a crossword puzzle, can challenge the test taker by using unfamiliar definitions.Hence the need for stronger clues than in a spelling bee, including clearly identified source, e.g., the Bill of Rights or a familiar poem, or even the front page of a daily newspaper.

Question format and sample questions. . . . Please identify the word designated by the following clues: (a) its spelling profile (initial letters and total number of letters), (b) its part of speech (n. for noun, v.tr. for transitive verb, adj. for adjective, etc.), (c) the sequence position of its dictionary definition (1/12 would indicate the first definition in a group of twelve numbered definitions, while 11/12 would indicate the eleventh definition in a group of twelve.

Here are two sample questions in the above format that are suitable for spoken use.Each is followed by the correct answer in brackets.The information in them comes from the American Heritage Dictionary, 4^th edition.

SQ1) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is EX******.It is a noun.It is the first numbered definition in a group of 12.The wording of that definition is "an act of employing or putting to use." [EXERCISE]

SQ2) Please identify the word designated by the following clues.Its spelling-profile is EX******.It is a transitive verb.It is the eleventh numbered definition in a group of 12.The wording of that definition is "to stir to anger." [EXERCISE]

Practical applications. . . . Spoken or written, the level of difficulty can be increased by reducing the number of letter-clues for each word target and by selecting less familiar definitions — usually those with higher sequence numbers.In a classroom setting the written answer can be replaced by a request for the "first omitted vowel letter, if any," as represented by one of five alternatives: (a) A; (b) E; (c) I; (d) O; (e) U, Y, or "none of these." . . .As long as participants "play fair," these multiple-meaning questions work beautifully with small children on a one-on-one basis.

At a time when an alphabet soup of high-stakes tests like NCLB, ACT, andSAT is flooding American awareness, along with a broad-based concern with patriotism, citizenship, and the bonding power of American English, multiple meaning vocabulary tests deserve serious attention.

I believe what's here offers a flexible, responsible, and thrifty alternative that will work for all Americans: 4^th graders and PhDs, native and non-native speakers, precocious and non-precocious students, and — most important — any American who wants to get his or head up to speed in the morning.