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Common Core State Standard
LS.CCS.4/5/6 Grades 3-12: Students are asked to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words through multiple choice vocabulary quizzes. Quizzes are designed to help students demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in words, acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words, and gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. Students are then asked to find the words within the newspaper and copy the sentence for context to its overall meaning or function in a sentence.
This Week's Word In The News 

VERTEBRAE

DEFINITION:
Each of the series of small bones forming the backbone.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The photographer with The Washington Post who was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank so badly that several vertebrae were broken said Sunday she was increasingly angry that Israel’s military seems to protect settlers more than the Palestinians they threaten.
►Associated Press, 10/19/2026

Words in the News Quiz
5 High School Words

Click on the correct answer in the quiz below.
Then see if you can find the word in your newspaper -- the print edition, the website or the digital edition and copy the sentence for context. NOTE: High School words are much harder to find!


1. Feckless

► Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

► A circular strand of DNA in bacteria that contains the hereditary information necessary for cell life.

► Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

► A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.


2. Abjure

► A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

► Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful.

► To renounce under oath; forswear.

► Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.


3. Kinetic

► Cheerfully confident; optimistic.

► The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.

► Of, relating to, or produced by motion.

► The clear, yellowish fluid portion of blood, lymph, or intramuscular fluid in which cells are suspended.


4. Incognito

► A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

► The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.

► A factor that determines a range of variations; a boundary


5. Gerrymander

► To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

► Lacking social polish; tactless.

► To show servile deference.

► To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.


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