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 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. Respiration

► To modify, as by shortening or simplifying or by skewing the content in a certain manner.

► The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

► The process in cell division by which the nucleus divides.

► A diligent, dependable worker.

2. Bellicose

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

► Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

► Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

► Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth:

3. Plasma

► 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.

► To make an accusation against.

► The clear, yellowish fluid portion of blood, lymph, or intramuscular fluid in which cells are suspended.

► Having a bad disposition; surly.

4. Detritus

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

► Clear to the understanding.

► A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener.

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

5. Vacuous

► To show servile deference.

► Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

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

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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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.