In order to establish the relative dominance of the various alternative meanings of 20 homographs. 100 subjects were given printed lists of words and asked to write a definition for each. Definitions were categorized and the frequency of definitions corresponding to each alternative meaning noted. Substantial variation in meaning dominance imbalance across homographs was observed. A high degree of correspondence between the dominance levels determined in this manner and those obtained by alternative methods was noted.
Subjects were asked to write a definition for each word and then use the word in a sentence. They were informed that some (in fact, all) of the words might have more than one meaning and that they should write down the first definition that came to mind.