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 

VERTEBRAE

DEFINITION:
Each of the series of small bones forming the backbone.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The photographer with The Washington Post who was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank so badly that several vertebrae were broken said Sunday she was increasingly angry that Israel’s military seems to protect settlers more than the Palestinians they threaten.
►Associated Press, 10/19/2026

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. Bowdlerize

► The process in cell division by which the nucleus divides.

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

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

► To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.


2. Taxonomy

► A factor that determines a range of variations; a boundary

► A temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.

► Division into ordered groups or categories.

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


3. Supercilious

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

► A plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the cone.

► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

► A circular strand of DNA in bacteria that contains the hereditary information necessary for cell life.


4. Wrought

► To make an accusation against.

► Extremely rapid, hasty, or abrupt; precipitate.

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

► Put together; created.


5. Nanotechnology

► Deception by trickery or sophistry.

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

► The science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules.

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


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