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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PROACTIVE

DEFINITION:
Taking action to control a situation rather than responding to it after it has happened.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
LoPilato said the policy aims to be proactive, rather than allowing more violence to take place before regulating the problem.
The Los Angeles Times, 07/20/2026

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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. Contradiction

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

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

A part, portion, or share.

Logical incongruity


2. Irony

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

To increase the positive charge or valence of (an element) by removing electrons.

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

Belonging to the period before a war, especially the American Civil War.


3. Thermodynamics

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

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

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

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


4. Belie

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

Having a harmful effect; injurious.

A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener.

To picture falsely; misrepresent.


5. Respiration

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

The lowest point

The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of.


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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.