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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ROOSTER TAIL

DEFINITION:
A high-arching spray (as of water, dust, or snow) thrown up behind a fast-moving motorboat, motor vehicle, or skier.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
A second red flag was waved during the fifth race of the day when Rollin Transport got into a rooster tail on the turn of the first lap, resulting in the boat going onto its side before flipping.
The Key West Citizen, 11/10/2025

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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. A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

Ziggurat

Impeach

Xenophobe

Belie


2. Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

Abjure

Vacuous

Reciprocal

Gauche


3. Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

Nihilism

Quotidian

Obsequious

Parabola


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

Winnow

Irony

Photosynthesis

Kinetic


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

Bowdlerize

Soliloquy

Sanguine

Churlish


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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.