Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

WILDFIRE

DEFINITION:
An unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
It was not yet clear how the wildfires started, but a long drought, low humidity and strong winds were fueling them.
The Key West Citizen, 04/27/2026

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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. Bowdlerize

The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source.

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

Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.


2. Circumlocution

The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

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

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

Having a harmful effect; injurious.


3. Temblor

Architectural.

Very talkative; garrulous.

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.


4. Acumen

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

An extremely distant, and thus old, celestial object whose power output is several thousand times that of our entire galaxy.

Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.

Playfully jocular; humorous


5. Supercilious

To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.

Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

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

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


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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.