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. Chicanery

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

A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style; a vocabulary:

Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.

Deception by trickery or sophistry.


2. Quasar

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

To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

To bring under control; conquer.

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


3. Chromosome

A circular strand of DNA in bacteria that contains the hereditary information necessary for cell life.

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

The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

To show servile deference.


4. Contradiction

To show servile deference.

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

Logical incongruity

Clear to the understanding.


5. Polymer

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

A diligent, dependable worker.

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.

The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.


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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.