Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
►The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

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Words in the News Quiz
5 Elementary 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. clarify

► A feeling of contempt or scorn.

► The throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it

► To make clear; to free from obscurities; to brighten or illuminate.

► The fervor or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.

2. defiance

► Natural ability to acquire knowledge or skill.

► Open resistance; bold disobedience.

► Representation of a concept through symbols or underlying meanings of objects or qualities.

► To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

3. infer

► The force or energy of a collision of two objects.

► Specifically, giving indication of a coming ill; being an evil omen

► Deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements

► A small hill or mound.

4. misgivings

► One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.

► Doubt, apprehension, a feeling of dread

► The person, place or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.

► Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress

5. interdependence

► Dependent on each other

► To identify by or divide into classes; to categorize.

► Speech or language that is incomprehensible or unintelligible; gibberish.

► Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

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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.