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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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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. Interpolate

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

Of or relating to money

To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.

Cheerfully confident; optimistic.


2. Plasma

Logical incongruity

Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

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

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


3. Antebellum

Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.

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

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.


4. Bellicose

Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

Division into ordered groups or categories.

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

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.


5. Churlish

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

Having a bad disposition; surly.

Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

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


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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.