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. Supercilious
► The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.
► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.
► Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.
2. Nadir
► Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.
► A factor that determines a range of variations; a boundary
3. Oligarchy
► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.
► Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
► To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.
4. Thermodynamics
► Physics that deals with the relationships and conversions between heat and other forms of energy.
► To renounce under oath; forswear.
► Having a harmful effect; injurious.
► The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.
5. Xenophobe
► Having a harmful effect; injurious.
► The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.
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.