Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

BACKLOT

DEFINITION:
An area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who serves the 4th District, makes her way across an empty, unnamed backlot, presenting her case to be the city’s next mayor.
►The Los Angeles Times, 05/18/2026

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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. Bellicose

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

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

► Warlike in manner or temperament; pugnacious.

► Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.

2. Nadir

► Physics that deals with the relationships and conversions between heat and other forms of energy.

► Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

► 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.

► The lowest point

3. Soliloquy

► To proceed completely around:

► 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.

► Something done or paid to compensate or make amends.

► A circular strand of DNA in bacteria that contains the hereditary information necessary for cell life.

4. Incognito

► A circular strand of DNA in bacteria that contains the hereditary information necessary for cell life.

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

► The science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules.

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

5. Respiration

► Lacking social polish; tactless.

► The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.

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

► Very talkative; garrulous.

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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.