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. Xenophobe

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

Something done or paid to compensate or make amends.

Having a harmful effect; injurious.

A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.


2. Enfranchise

Eating and drinking in moderation.

Architectural.

To endow with the rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote.

A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.


3. Recapitulate

Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce the fertilized egg.

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

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.


4. Winnow

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

Very talkative; garrulous.

Either of two points on the celestial sphere at which the ecliptic intersects the celestial equator.

To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate.


5. Fatuous

The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.

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

Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.


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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.