Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ROOSTER TAIL

DEFINITION:
A high-arching spray (as of water, dust, or snow) thrown up behind a fast-moving motorboat, motor vehicle, or skier.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
A second red flag was waved during the fifth race of the day when Rollin Transport got into a rooster tail on the turn of the first lap, resulting in the boat going onto its side before flipping.
►The Key West Citizen, 11/10/2025

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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. Supercilious

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

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

► To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

2. Circumnavigate

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

► Everyday; commonplace.

► To proceed completely around:

► To picture falsely; misrepresent.

3. Lexicon

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

► To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate.

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

► Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

4. Auspicious

► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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

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

5. Evanescent

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

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

► 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.

► Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.

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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.