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.
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. Oligarchy
► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.
► Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
► Of or relating to a holding of something in trust for another.
2. Chicanery
► Deception by trickery or sophistry.
► Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.
► A diligent, dependable worker.
3. Totalitarian
► A diligent, dependable worker.
► The iron-containing respiratory pigment in red blood cells of vertebrates.
4. Usurp
► A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.
► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.
► To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.
5. Feckless
► Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.
► To modify, as by shortening or simplifying or by skewing the content in a certain manner.
► A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.
©2026 Boston Herald in Education and Online Publications Inc. and NIEonline.com




