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. Nomenclature

A system of names used in an art or science:

Put together; created.

The process in cell division by which the nucleus divides.

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


2. Ziggurat

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

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

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

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.


3. Bowdlerize

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

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

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.

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


4. Totalitarian

Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

A form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life,

Everyday; commonplace.

Something done or paid to compensate or make amends.


5. Taxonomy

To picture falsely; misrepresent.

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.

Division into ordered groups or categories.

Clear to the understanding.


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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.