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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PLOY

DEFINITION:
A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
“First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” said the 44th president, conceding that it does serve as an effective distraction and ploy for attention.
The Boston Herald, 02/16/2026

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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. Abjure

To renounce under oath; forswear.

The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

Everyday; commonplace.

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.


2. Hubris

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

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

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

A temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.


3. Bowdlerize

To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

To modify, as by shortening or simplifying or by skewing the content in a certain manner.

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


4. Chicanery

To proceed completely around:

Deception by trickery or sophistry.

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

To picture falsely; misrepresent.


5. Inculcate

Of the same or similar nature or kind

Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.

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

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


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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.