Boston Herald in Education provides free newspapers and curriculum to schools through sponsor and reader donations.
Generate your own quiz 

Select a grade level

 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School

Select a quiz type

 By words    By Definitions

How many questions?

 5  10  15  20 Questions



 

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.
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

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. Irony

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

Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth:

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

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.


2. Enfranchise

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

To endow with the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.

An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.


3. Enervate

To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of.

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.


4. Oligarchy

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

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.

The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.

Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.


5. Thermodynamics

A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.

The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.

To make an accusation against.

Physics that deals with the relationships and conversions between heat and other forms of energy.


Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions

©2026 Boston Herald in Education and Online Publications Inc. and NIEonline.com