Bay Area Newsgroup Newspapers in Education.  The Mercury News, East Bay Times, Marin Independant Journal, Santa Cruz Sentinel.  Classroom Hero image. Bay Area Newsgroup Newspapers in Education.  The Mercury News, East Bay Times, Marin Independant Journal, Santa Cruz Sentinel.  Classroom Hero image.
Home About NIE Sponsor NIE Contact Us
Geography Last Week Front Page Cartoons News Video Words Use the News History Special Report Pulse NASA

Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ADVERSE

DEFINITION:
Having a negative or harmful effect on something.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
There was no evidence of “any adverse or harmful chemical or other exposures,” he wrote.
The Boston Herald, 06/15/2026

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. Totalitarian

A form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life,

The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.

To picture falsely; misrepresent.

Characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; fervid.


2. Hegemony

Characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; fervid.

To bring under control; conquer.

The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.

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


3. Reciprocal

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

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


4. Homogeneous

Of the same or similar nature or kind

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

Lacking social polish; tactless.

To remove erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material from (a book, for example) before publication.


5. Nadir

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

The lowest point

A system of names used in an art or science:

Division into ordered groups or categories.


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.