Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

SUREFIRE

DEFINITION:
Certain or likely, especially to succeed.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Kirby taught himself how to count cards, a surefire way to get barred from gambling at a casino, “raking in money on trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” the article stated.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 05/04/2026

Generate your own quiz
Select a grade level
 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School
Select a quiz type
 By words
 By Definitions
Select how many questions
5   10   15   20  

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. Enervate

Having a bad disposition; surly.

Having one’s true identity concealed.

To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of.

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


2. Quasar

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

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

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

An extremely distant, and thus old, celestial object whose power output is several thousand times that of our entire galaxy.


3. Nihilism

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

A system of names used in an art or science:

Tumultuous; stormy.

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


4. Subjugate

To bring under control; conquer.

Logical incongruity

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

To proceed completely around:


5. Bowdlerize

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

To proceed completely around:

Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.

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


Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions

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.