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 Middle 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. Enthusiastic

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.


2. Plateau

The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.

An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.


3. Polygon

A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.

Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

Being without or almost without hope


4. Quarantine

Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant


5. Hypocrisy

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.


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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.