Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PROACTIVE

DEFINITION:
Taking action to control a situation rather than responding to it after it has happened.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
LoPilato said the policy aims to be proactive, rather than allowing more violence to take place before regulating the problem.
The Los Angeles Times, 07/20/2026

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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. Churlish

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

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

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

Having a bad disposition; surly.


2. Notarize

Division into ordered groups or categories.

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

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

Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.


3. Loquacious

Of or relating to a holding of something in trust for another.

Very talkative; garrulous.

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

A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style; a vocabulary:


4. Soliloquy

Deception by trickery or sophistry.

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

A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener.

To remove erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material from (a book, for example) before publication.


5. Laissez faire

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

To proceed completely around:

To renounce under oath; forswear.

The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.


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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.