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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ARID

DEFINITION:
Being without moisture; extremely dry; parched.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The unpredictability of illegal fireworks make them dangerous in the arid desert climate, said Riddle, who is also bureau commander of Metro’s Northeast Area Command.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 06/30/2025

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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. Ziggurat

A temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, having the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories.

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

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


2. Lexicon

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

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

To picture falsely; misrepresent.

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


3. Mitosis

Clear to the understanding.

To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

The process in cell division by which the nucleus divides.

The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.


4. Xenophobe

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

Of or relating to money

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

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.


5. Supercilious

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.

To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate.

Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

Something done or paid to compensate or make amends.


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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.