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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. Precipitous

Extremely rapid, hasty, or abrupt; precipitate.

A diligent, dependable worker.

A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality

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


2. Euro

A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality

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

Very talkative; garrulous.

The basic unit of currency among participating European Union countries.


3. Feckless

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

To separate or get rid of (an undesirable part); eliminate.

Something done or paid to compensate or make amends.

Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.


4. Totalitarian

The clear, yellowish fluid portion of blood, lymph, or intramuscular fluid in which cells are suspended.

A product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away; debris.

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

Impossible to dispute; unquestionable


5. Vacuous

Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

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

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


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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.