Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PLOY

DEFINITION:
A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
“First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” said the 44th president, conceding that it does serve as an effective distraction and ploy for attention.
►The Boston Herald, 02/16/2026

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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. Deleterious

► To increase the positive charge or valence of (an element) by removing electrons.

► Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

► Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

► Having a harmful effect; injurious.

2. Precipitous

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

► Extremely rapid, hasty, or abrupt; precipitate.

► Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

3. Parabola

► Characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; fervid.

► Of the same or similar nature or kind

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

► To certify or attest to (the validity of a signature on a document, for example) as a notary public.

4. Supercilious

► Architectural.

► The lowest point

► Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

5. Suffragist

► Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.

► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.

► A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce the fertilized egg.

► A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

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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.