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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

INSPECTOR

DEFINITION:
An official employed to ensure that official regulations are obeyed, especially in public services.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are federal employees, and misconduct allegations are typically investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility or by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of inspector General.
The Key West Citizen, 03/16/2026

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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. Unctuous

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

Tumultuous; stormy.

To endow with the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.

Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.


2. Deleterious

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

Everyday; commonplace.

Having a harmful effect; injurious.

A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener.


3. Orthography

Architectural.

Playfully jocular; humorous

The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.

Of the same or similar nature or kind


4. Totalitarian

The science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules.

To remove erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material from (a book, for example) before publication.

A form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life,

To show servile deference.


5. Fatuous

Of or relating to money

Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

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

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


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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.