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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ROOSTER TAIL

DEFINITION:
A high-arching spray (as of water, dust, or snow) thrown up behind a fast-moving motorboat, motor vehicle, or skier.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
A second red flag was waved during the fifth race of the day when Rollin Transport got into a rooster tail on the turn of the first lap, resulting in the boat going onto its side before flipping.
►The Key West Citizen, 11/10/2025

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Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle 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. Nocturnal

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

► An embankment built to prevent flooding

► The main character in a drama or other literary work.

► A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.

2. Commemorate

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

3. Sect

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.

4. Plateau

► An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

► To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.

► A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

5. Enthusiastic

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

► The arrangement of events in time

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

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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.

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