Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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. Tautology

► Of, relating to, or produced by motion.

► A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

► The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.

2. Chicanery

► Deception by trickery or sophistry.

► A part, portion, or share.

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

► Something done or paid to compensate or make amends.

3. Infrastructure

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

► A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

► Very talkative; garrulous.

► Put together; created.

4. Supercilious

► Put together; created.

► Noninterference in the affairs of others.

► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

► The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

5. Obsequious

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

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

► 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.

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

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.