Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

IMPROBABLE

DEFINITION:
Unlikely to take place under the circumstances or in the usual course of events.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
That’s where Democratic candidates are trying to accomplish the improbable by flipping a pair of Trump-friendly congressional seats and carving into Republicans’ narrow 218 to 213 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
►The Key West Citizen-Herald, 03/31/2025

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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. Plasma

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

► Cheerfully confident; optimistic.

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

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

2. Deciduous

► 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.

► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

► The lowest point

► Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth:

3. Hegemony

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

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

► Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.

► Architectural.

4. Nanotechnology

► The science and technology of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and molecules.

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

► To picture falsely; misrepresent.

► Deception by trickery or sophistry.

5. Lugubrious

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

► To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.

► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.

► Having a harmful effect; injurious.

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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.