Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ROOSTER TAIL

DEFINITION:
A high-arching spray (as of water, dust, or snow) thrown up behind a fast-moving motorboat, motor vehicle, or skier.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
A second red flag was waved during the fifth race of the day when Rollin Transport got into a rooster tail on the turn of the first lap, resulting in the boat going onto its side before flipping.
►The Key West Citizen, 11/10/2025

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Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle 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. Sacrifice

► A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy

► Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

► Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

► Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold

2. Bizarre

► The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

► The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.

► Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

► The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

3. Divulge

► The food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.

► To proclaim publicly

► To take in by elaborate methods of deceit

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

4. Dialogue

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

► A schedule of prices or fees.

► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

► The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

5. Mosaic

► The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

► The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids and vessels; woody tissue.

► A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

► Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

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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.