Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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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. Tautology

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.

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

Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.

A place or situation regarded as drawing into its center all that surrounds it.


2. Gamete

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

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.

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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.


3. Metamorphosis

To show servile deference.

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.

A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.


4. Notarize

A system of names used in an art or science:

To certify or attest to (the validity of a signature on a document, for example) as a notary public.

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

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


5. Recapitulate

An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.

A diligent, dependable worker.

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


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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.