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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

BACKLOT

DEFINITION:
An area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who serves the 4th District, makes her way across an empty, unnamed backlot, presenting her case to be the city’s next mayor.
►The Los Angeles Times, 05/18/2026

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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. Nomenclature

► Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful.

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

► A system of names used in an art or science:

► Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.

2. Feckless

► Division into ordered groups or categories.

► Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.

► Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

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

3. Recapitulate

► Clear to the understanding.

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

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

► The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.

4. Gamete

► Everyday; commonplace.

► Of or relating to a holding of something in trust for another.

► 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 picture falsely; misrepresent.

5. Orthography

► Cheerfully confident; optimistic.

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

► The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.

► Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

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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.