Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ATMOSPHERIC

DEFINITION:
Anything related to the atmosphere, which is the layer of gases surrounding a planet. An atmospheric river is a narrow corridor concentrated water vapor.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
A major atmospheric river storm — strong enough to potentially rival some of the extreme storms that have walloped Southern California in recent winters — is barreling toward the coast, raising the specter of damaging landslides and flooding across the region.
The Los Angeles Times, 02/10/2025

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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. Lugubrious

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

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.

Clear to the understanding.


2. Abrogate

Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

Characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; fervid.

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

To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.


3. Unctuous

Tumultuous; stormy.

Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

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

Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.


4. Fiduciary

Having one’s true identity concealed.

Division into ordered groups or categories.

Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful.

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


5. Recapitulate

A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it.

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

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.

To renounce under oath; forswear.


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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.