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. Unctuous
► Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness.
► Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.
► A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.
2. Irony
► A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.
► The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
3. Fatuous
► Eating and drinking in moderation.
► Of, relating to, or produced by motion.
► Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.
► Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.
4. Nihilism
► A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function.
► A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
► Characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; fervid.
5. Obsequious
► Characterized by forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; fervid.
► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.
► Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.
► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.
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.