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.
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. Infrastructure
► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.
► Cheerfully confident; optimistic.
► An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.
2. Bellicose
► A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality
► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.
► Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.
3. Detritus
► The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.
► A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.
► A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.
4. Incontrovertible
► Impossible to dispute; unquestionable
► Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.
► Deception by trickery or sophistry.
5. Vacuous
► Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.
©2026 Boston Herald in Education and Online Publications Inc. and NIEonline.com
