Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

VERTEBRAE

DEFINITION:
Each of the series of small bones forming the backbone.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The photographer with The Washington Post who was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank so badly that several vertebrae were broken said Sunday she was increasingly angry that Israel’s military seems to protect settlers more than the Palestinians they threaten.
►Associated Press, 10/19/2026

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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. Expurgate

► A system of names used in an art or science:

► To certify or attest to (the validity of a signature on a document, for example) as a notary public.

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

► Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

2. Taxonomy

► Division into ordered groups or categories.

► The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.

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

► Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units,

3. Diffident

► A part, portion, or share.

► Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.

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

► To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.

4. Detritus

► A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.

► A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.

► Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

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

5. Acumen

► 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.

► Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.

► Very talkative; garrulous.

► Either of two points on the celestial sphere at which the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator.

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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.