Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

THRESHOLD

DEFINITION:
A level, point, or value at which something is true.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Child poverty — an assessment of whether pretax income for households with children falls below the latest poverty threshold — declined more significantly in New Mexico in the last three years, dropping from an estimated rate of 24.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 20.9% from 2023 to 2025.
►The Albuquerque Journal, 09/28/2026

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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. Chicanery

► Division into ordered groups or categories.

► Of the same or similar nature or kind

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

► Deception by trickery or sophistry.

2. Feckless

► Having one’s true identity concealed.

► Everyday; commonplace.

► Lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective.

► The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle.

3. Parameter

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

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

► A factor that determines a range of variations; a boundary

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

4. Belie

► To picture falsely; misrepresent.

► To bring under control; conquer.

► A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.

► Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

5. Oxidize

► Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.

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

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

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

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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.