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. Taxonomy

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

► The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.

► Division into ordered groups or categories.

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


2. Totalitarian

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

► An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.

► Put together; created.

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


3. Reciprocal

► Interchanged, given, or owed to each other.

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

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

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


4. Oxidize

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

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

► To proceed completely around:

► To show servile deference.


5. Filibuster

► To show servile deference.

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

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

► Of or relating to money


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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.