Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PETITIONER

DEFINITION:
A person who pleads with a governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through the use of a petition.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
While presenting the citizens’ petition for debate at the April 11 Spring Town Meeting, petitioners argued that ICE operations in Plymouth have “created fear” and “disrupted lives” among the immigrant community, leading to what they call a distrust of local police.
►The Boston Herald, 04/20/2026

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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. Incognito

► A diligent, dependable worker.

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

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

2. Fatuous

► Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

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

► Logical incongruity

► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

3. Oxidize

► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

► Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

► To increase the positive charge or valence of (an element) by removing electrons.

► A factor that determines a range of variations; a boundary

4. Abstemious

► 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.

► Eating and drinking in moderation.

► A circular strand of DNA in bacteria that contains the hereditary information necessary for cell life.

► Of, relating to, or produced by motion.

5. Kowtow

► To show servile deference.

► Clear to the understanding.

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

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

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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.