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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

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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. Nonsectarian

To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of.

Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

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.

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


2. Circumlocution

Of or relating to money

Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units,

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

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


3. Unctuous

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.

Either of two points on the celestial sphere at which the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator.

To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate.


4. Gerrymander

A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce the fertilized egg.

To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

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


5. Quotidian

Everyday; commonplace.

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

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.

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


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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.