Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

MITIGATION

DEFINITION:
The action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
But after years of record investment by the state in such wildfire risk mitigation, two key money sources are drying up, potentially reducing the state’s annual budget for vegetation removal by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Los Angeles Times, 06/01/2026

Generate your own quiz
Select a grade level
 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School
Select a quiz type
 By words
 By Definitions
Select how many questions
5   10   15   20  

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. Loquacious

A form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life,

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

Of, relating to, or produced by motion.

Very talkative; garrulous.


2. Omnipotent

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

To renounce under oath; forswear.

Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful.

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.


3. Equinox

A part, portion, or share.

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

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

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


4. Lugubrious

Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.

Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

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

A factor that determines a range of variations; a boundary


5. Churlish

Put together; created.

Having a bad disposition; surly.

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

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


Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    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.