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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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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. Churlish

Of the same or similar nature or kind

Having a bad disposition; surly.

Of, relating to, or produced by motion.

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


2. Vortex

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

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

Extremely rapid, hasty, or abrupt; precipitate.

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


3. Filibuster

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

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

Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.


4. Circumnavigate

To proceed completely around:

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

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

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.


5. Gauche

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.

Lacking social polish; tactless.

The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.


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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.