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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. Kowtow

Division into ordered groups or categories.

Clear to the understanding.

To show servile deference.

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


2. Soliloquy

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

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.

Cheerfully confident; optimistic.


3. Quasar

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

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

To bring under control; conquer.

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


4. Filibuster

Put together; created.

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

Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units,

To make an accusation against.


5. Diffident

To make an accusation against.

Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

Of or relating to a holding of something in trust for another.

Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence; shy and timid.


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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.