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. Laconic

► Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

2. Participle

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

► Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

► A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.

3. Technique

► The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.

► Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

► A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.

► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

4. Ultraviolet

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

► Of or relating to the range of invisible radiation wavelengths from about 4 nanometers, on the border of the x-ray region, to about 380 nanometers, just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum.

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.

5. Fallacy

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

► The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

► Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

► An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze.

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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.