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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PROACTIVE

DEFINITION:
Taking action to control a situation rather than responding to it after it has happened.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
LoPilato said the policy aims to be proactive, rather than allowing more violence to take place before regulating the problem.
The Los Angeles Times, 07/20/2026

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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. Deciduous

Eating and drinking in moderation.

Physics that deals with the relationships and conversions between heat and other forms of energy.

Not interesting; dull:

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


2. Expurgate

The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.

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

A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style; a vocabulary:


3. Inculcate

Playfully jocular; humorous

Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

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

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


4. Oligarchy

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

Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.

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


5. Gerrymander

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units,

The basic unit of currency among participating European Union countries.

Architectural.


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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.