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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

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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. Thermodynamics

A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it.

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

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

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


2. Nihilism

A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

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

To renounce under oath; forswear.

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.


3. Kowtow

A system of names used in an art or science:

To show servile deference.

The lowest point

Having a bad disposition; surly.


4. Polymer

Impossible to dispute; unquestionable

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

A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.


5. Filibuster

Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.

Deception by trickery or sophistry.

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

Having one’s true identity concealed.


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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.