Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

SHRAPNEL

DEFINITION:
Pieces of a bomb, shell, or bullet that has exploded.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The U.S. military exercise that shot live-fire artillery rounds over Interstate 5 on Saturday dropped metal shrapnel onto a California Highway Patrol protective services detail for Vice President JD Vance, agency officials said Sunday.
►The Los Angeles Times, 10/20/2025

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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. Thermodynamics

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

► The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source.

► To picture falsely; misrepresent.

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

2. Circumlocution

► A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

► A part, portion, or share.

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

► The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

3. Nihilism

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

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

► To renounce under oath; forswear.

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

4. Parabola

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

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

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

► Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

5. Abrogate

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

► To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.

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

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

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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.