WORDS IN THE NEWS
USE THE NEWS
HISTORY
PULSE OF THE PLANET
NEWS VIDEO
GEOGRAPHY
FRONT PAGE
CARTOONS IN THE CLASSROOM

Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PETITIONER

DEFINITION:
A person who pleads with a governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through the use of a petition.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
While presenting the citizens’ petition for debate at the April 11 Spring Town Meeting, petitioners argued that ICE operations in Plymouth have “created fear” and “disrupted lives” among the immigrant community, leading to what they call a distrust of local police.
►The Boston Herald, 04/20/2026

Generate your own quiz
Select a grade level
 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School
Select a quiz type
 By words
 By Definitions
Select how many questions
5   10   15   20  

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. Homogeneous

► 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.

► Of the same or similar nature or kind

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

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

2. Bowdlerize

► Extremely rapid, hasty, or abrupt; precipitate.

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

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

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

3. Incognito

► Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

► Noninterference in the affairs of others.

► 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.

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

4. Deciduous

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

► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

► Of, relating to, or produced by motion.

► Very talkative; garrulous.

5. Yeoman

► A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality

► A diligent, dependable worker.

► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

► Having a harmful effect; injurious.

Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions

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.