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. Obsequious
► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.
► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.
► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.
2. Nomenclature
► The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
► To endow with the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.
► A system of names used in an art or science:
► To picture falsely; misrepresent.
3. Totalitarian
► A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it.
► To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.
4. Incognito
► Having one’s true identity concealed.
► To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.
► A diligent, dependable worker.
5. Diffident
► To proceed completely around:
► Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.
► Division into ordered groups or categories.
► Having a harmful effect; injurious.
©2026 Boston Herald in Education and Online Publications Inc. and NIEonline.com




