Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ROOSTER TAIL

DEFINITION:
A high-arching spray (as of water, dust, or snow) thrown up behind a fast-moving motorboat, motor vehicle, or skier.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
A second red flag was waved during the fifth race of the day when Rollin Transport got into a rooster tail on the turn of the first lap, resulting in the boat going onto its side before flipping.
►The Key West Citizen, 11/10/2025

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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. Obsequious

► Having a harmful effect; injurious.

► To insert or introduce between other elements or parts.

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

► Full of or exhibiting servile compliance; fawning.

2. Tautology

► Very talkative; garrulous.

► Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth:

► Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious.

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

3. Winnow

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

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

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

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

4. Abjure

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

► To abolish, do away with, or annul, especially by authority.

► Quickness, accuracy, and keenness of judgment or insight.

► To renounce under oath; forswear.

5. Paradigm

► The process in cell division by which the nucleus divides.

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

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

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

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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.