Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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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. Inculcate

The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.

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

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

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


2. Deciduous

The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

A diligent, dependable worker.

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


3. Wrought

Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.

Put together; created.

A plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the cone.

The iron-containing respiratory pigment in red blood cells of vertebrates.


4. Soliloquy

Playfully jocular; humorous

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

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.

To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of.


5. Epiphany

Logical incongruity

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

Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.


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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.