Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

THRESHOLD

DEFINITION:
A level, point, or value at which something is true.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Child poverty — an assessment of whether pretax income for households with children falls below the latest poverty threshold — declined more significantly in New Mexico in the last three years, dropping from an estimated rate of 24.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 20.9% from 2023 to 2025.
►The Albuquerque Journal, 09/28/2026

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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. Obsequious

► The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

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

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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


2. Evanescent

► To renounce under oath; forswear.

► To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.

► Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.

► A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.


3. Interpolate

► To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.

► Eating and drinking in moderation.

► The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.

► Having one’s true identity concealed.


4. Circumnavigate

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

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

► To proceed completely around:

► 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.


5. Vortex

► Tumultuous; stormy.

► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

► The clear, yellowish fluid portion of blood, lymph, or intramuscular fluid in which cells are suspended.

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


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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.