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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

CANVASS

DEFINITION:
A systematic approach to interviewing residents, merchants, and others who are in the immediate vicinity of a crime and may have useful information.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
In a press release, police said Lewisville Fire Department officials pronounced the man deceased on the scene. Police started a homicide investigation immediately, and canvassed the area in search of witnesses.
The Denton Record-Chronicle, 09/14/2026

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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. Hegemony

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

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

Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

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


2. Quasar

A diligent, dependable worker.

The basic unit of currency among participating European Union countries.

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

Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.


3. Oligarchy

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

Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.

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

Playfully jocular; humorous


4. Vortex

The iron-containing respiratory pigment in red blood cells of vertebrates.

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

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

Physics that deals with the relationships and conversions between heat and other forms of energy.


5. Evanescent

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

Noninterference in the affairs of others.

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

Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.


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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.