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 Middle 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. Parasite

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

► One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

2. Tundra

► Of or relating to the range of invisible radiation wavelengths from about 4 nanometers, on the border of the x-ray region, to about 380 nanometers, just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum.

► A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

► The arrangement of events in time

3. Bizarre

► Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

► Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

► Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

4. Malignant

► The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

► A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.

► Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

5. Decorum

► Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

► A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

► The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.

► To condescend to give or grant

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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.