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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. Precipitous

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

Extremely rapid, hasty, or abrupt; precipitate.

Lacking social polish; tactless.

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


2. Facetious

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

Playfully jocular; humorous

Having a bad disposition; surly.

Having one’s true identity concealed.


3. Nihilism

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

Not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.

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

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


4. Abjure

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

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

To picture falsely; misrepresent.

To renounce under oath; forswear.


5. Parabola

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

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

A plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the cone.

To repeat in concise form. To make a summary.


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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.