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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

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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. Xenophobe

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

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

Vacuously, smugly, and unconsciously foolish.

To renounce under oath; forswear.


2. Ziggurat

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

Architectural.

The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.

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


3. Circumnavigate

To bring under control; conquer.

To proceed completely around:

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

Put together; created.


4. Deciduous

To impress (something) upon the mind of another by frequent instruction or repetition; instill.

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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

The use of unnecessarily wordy and indirect language.


5. Temblor

Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane.

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

A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

To show servile deference.


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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.