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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

VERTEBRAE

DEFINITION:
Each of the series of small bones forming the backbone.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The photographer with The Washington Post who was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank so badly that several vertebrae were broken said Sunday she was increasingly angry that Israel’s military seems to protect settlers more than the Palestinians they threaten.
►Associated Press, 10/19/2026

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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. Wrought

► The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

► An advocate of the extension of political voting rights, especially to women.

► Put together; created.

► Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.


2. Polymer

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

► Feeling or showing haughty disdain.

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

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


3. Lexicon

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

► Logical incongruity

► A stock of terms used in a particular profession, subject, or style; a vocabulary:

► The lowest point


4. Abjure

► To renounce under oath; forswear.

► Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.

► To seize another’s place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

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


5. Lucid

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

► Clear to the understanding.

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

► A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex to produce the fertilized egg.


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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.