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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 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

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. Auspicious

Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth:

Either of two points on the celestial sphere at which the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator.

Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

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


2. Kowtow

To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate.

To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.

To show servile deference.

A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it.


3. Nonsectarian

Put together; created.

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.

Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.


4. Tempestuous

A part, portion, or share.

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

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

Tumultuous; stormy.


5. Thermodynamics

Physics that deals with the relationships and conversions between heat and other forms of energy.

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

To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.


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