Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

SUREFIRE

DEFINITION:
Certain or likely, especially to succeed.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Kirby taught himself how to count cards, a surefire way to get barred from gambling at a casino, “raking in money on trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” the article stated.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 05/04/2026

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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. Plasma

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

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

Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.

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


2. Facetious

Playfully jocular; humorous

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

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.

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.


3. Unctuous

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.

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.

Division into ordered groups or categories.

Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.


4. Nomenclature

The iron-containing respiratory pigment in red blood cells of vertebrates.

A system of names used in an art or science:

The process in cell division by which the nucleus divides.

Clear to the understanding.


5. Polymer

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

Of or relating to money

Deception by trickery or sophistry.

A part, portion, or share.


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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.