20 Advanced Words from the Latest News Headlines

you read the news headlines but do you understand all of the words let's learn some English vocabulary from today's news headlines so that you can feel confident talking about current events in English that is real fluency do you know the meaning of the verb to derail or to sty or to Scorch or the phrasal verb to rack up and you know the meaning of cloud but what does it mean when we use it as a verb to Cloud something in this video you will learn all of these verbs plus many more instead of teaching you

words from just one news article I will do something different in this video I will teach you the words from news headlines I was reading the newspaper headlines the other day and I was thinking about you my English students and I thought to myself there are so many words here that my students need to know they may not know them these are pretty Advanced words all of these words are from the Los Angeles Times from the headline lines on January 25th let's pronounce these words correctly and let's make sure that you know what they mean

ceasefire will the widely welcom Gaza ceasefire last let's look at the pronunciation of these two words sees and cease one is pronounced with a z and one is pronounced with a s to seize is to hold something or to control something but to cease is to stop doing something we can say the noise finally ceased she worked without ceasing or she worked ceaselessly ceaselessly so a ceasefire is when the fighting stops when the war stops temporarily let's repeat these two words to make sure that you're pronouncing them correctly we have it was seized and we

have it was ceased if I say it was seized it means something was taken or captured usually by force or by legal action we can say the police seized the stolen goods control of the city was seized by the rebels but how about if we say it was ceased that means it was stopped it came to an end we can say the production of that product was ceased due to low demand the noise finally ceased after midnight and let's use ceasefire in a sentence we can say both sides agreed to a ceasefire during the peace

talks repeat after me ceasefire ceasefire what is the difference between a ceasefire and a truce let's look at the sub headline there are growing signs that the second phase of the fragile truth will never happen first of all I want to make sure that you can pronounce fragile correctly in British English it's fragile but in American English it's fragile so depending on which accent you would like to speak you can decide if you'd like to pronounce it as fragile in British English or fragile in American English let's look at the headline again there are growing

signs that the second phase of the fragile truce will never happen a truce is an agreement to stop fighting often for a longer time than a ceasefire for example we can say they called a truce after years of conflict both leaders shook hands to celebrate the truce so remember a ceasefire is usually temporary and a truce is longer and hopefully it's a permanent end to war you probably know the meaning of the verb to mute you can mute the sound on your TV or on your computer right but we have another meaning of to mute

and let's look at the way it's used in this headline as families reunite and ceasefires first phase Joy is muted by doubt over long-term peace let's look at Joy is muted by doubt to mute something is to make something quieter or less noticeable to make something softer or or less clear you know this meaning please mute your microphone during the meeting but we can also say the curtains muted the bright sunlight or his re reaction was muted compared to hers so his reaction was not so strong it was not so intense it was more quiet

the article said the joy is muted it's not a full expression of Joy people are not free to Rejoice their Joy is muted you know the meaning of the verb to weigh right I weigh myself on the scale or how much do you weigh but what does it mean if I say I am weighing my options let's look at the headline Europe weighs Ukraine ceasefire options this is weigh this is waight and this is weighing weighing we can say I am weighing my options to weigh something is to think carefully about the different options before

deciding we often say I am weighing my options I'm weighing my options for a new job she weighed the pros and cons before buying a house he's weighing whether to stay or to leave let's learn the meaning of the verb to derail let's look at the way it's used in this news headline ASAP Rocky became a superstar will a Hollywood shooting trial derail his career let's look at rail first these are rails a rail is a steel bar and this is a railroad or we say railroad tracks and to de derail is to cause a

train to leave the tracks accidentally we can say the Train derailed this is a train that has derailed but we can also use it this way his mistake derailed his career so to derail means to stop or to ruin a plan from succeeding for example we can say the bad weather derailed their travel plans my dreams have been derailed the project was derailed by funding issues the article is questioning whether ASAP Rocky's career will be derailed by the trial let's listen to how some other people used to derail this conversation got derailed really fast you

can be derailed by how other people see you we start some conversations we allowed to get derailed this word has been in the news a lot lately tariff do you know the difference between a tariff and a tax let's look at the news headline Trump's tariff threat looms over DeVos economic Summit what is the difference between a tariff and a tax a tax is a charge that a person or a business pays for example we say income tax or sales tax or property tax or business tax but a tariff is a tax on Goods that

are imported or sometimes exported we can say the government imposed new tariffs on steal tariffs can increase the cost of imported goods Farmers worry about the impact of higher tariffs do you know the meaning of the verb to overshadow this is what the sub headline said his comments overshadow talk of climate change trade and development to overshadow something is to make something less important or less noticeable by being more important for example we can say he has always been overshadowed by his older brother his mistake overshadowed the team's success the large building overshadowed the smaller

houses the Scandal overshadowed everything else in his career my happiness was overshadowed by the bad news so Trump's talks about tariffs overshadowed the other topics at the summit let's listen to how some other people used it issues such as immigration far overshadowed terrorism who you are can be overshadowed by what you do let's look at another headline in the news look at the verb to Echo it says Putin Echoes Trump's claim on Ukraine election you know what an echo is Right a repeated sound for example my voice echoed through the empty hallway but in this

case it said Putin echoed Trump's claims it's it's used differently to Echo is to repeat or to agree with someone's words or ideas for example we can say he echoed the president's views her concerns echoed those of the public the article echoed what others had already said his beliefs echoed my own making it easy to connect with him let's listen to how some other people used it this was echoed by the British and other Europeans you'll hear this echoed through the media you'll hear this echoed through um the uh the words of uh of politicians

let's look at another headline from the news look at the verb to Cloud the headline says Asylum seeker's future is clouded with uncertainty this is a cloud but to cloud is to make something unclear or difficult to understand for example we can say fear is clouding your judgment you can't think clearly because you have fear or uncertain cty clouded the team's decision sadness clouded his thoughts or we can say the fog clouded our view of the mountains let's listen to the way some other people used it campaign itself became clouded by an atmosphere of violence

and I couldn't do that so well because I was clouded by fear human perception is clouded by emotion cultural assumptions unconscious habits you know the meaning of top right but what does the verb to top mean the headline of the article said estimated cost of SoCal fire damage tops $250 billion and SoCal is Southern California that's a common way to say it SoCal I live in SoCal and estimated cost of SoCal fire damage tops $250 billion to top means to go over or to exceed a certain amount we can say the damage topped $1 million

the temperature topped 100° yesterday and that means it was 100° or higher her performance topped everyone's expectations let's look at the meaning of the adjective somber the headline says after criticizing State's Fire response Trump surveys the damage in Los Angeles and the sub headline says president greets firefighters and residents in a somber tour of the ruins in Pacific Palisades if something is somber it's very serious or very sad or gloomy it's depressing for example we can say the mood in the room was somber after the bad news or you can say he wore a somber

expression during the ceremony he had a somber expression on his face or you can say the teacher's voice was somber as she explained the news let's look at another headline from the news let's look at the word scarcity the headline says Palisades water scarcity was years in the making the adjective is scarce and the noun is scarcity and scarcity is a lack of something when there is not enough of something for example we can say there's a scarcity of clean water in some areas or we can say clean water is scarce in some areas in

that case we used it as an adjective or we can say the scarcity of food caused prices to rise or we can say when there's a scarcity of rain there is a drought or we can say when rain is scarce in that case we use it as an adjective and let's look at to be years in the making Palisades water scarcity was years in the making when something is years in the making it means it took a long time for it to happen happen it happened over a long period of time it wasn't overnight for

example we can say the new policy was years in the making the movie years in the making finally premiered her success was years in the making it didn't happen overnight let's listen to how some other people used it that's a benefit to the system but that was years in the making the launch of an exhibition that has been many years in the making this launch was four years in the making let's look at the verb to sty that's a pretty Advanced word this word appeared in the sub headline and it said improvements to the system

were styed long before the fire disaster records show toyy is to block or to stop something from happening to prevent the progress of something for example we can say the Heavy Rain styed our outdoor plans his health problems styed his career growth the new law styed the company's progress let's listen to how some other people used it and trying not to let all of fear sty US during that tough tough time from scavengers or sty the spread of disease block or sty China's Economic Development let's look at another headline from the news the verb is

to rain and the headline said confusion Reigns as path to Asylum blocked If This Were not a headline If This Were a regular sentence it would say as the path to Asylum is blocked but these are headlines so things are shortened and little words are eliminated for example prepositions or articles and often the present tense is used first let's look at the pronunciation of the verb to rain it's pronounced exactly the same as to rain it's raining outside or a rain the horse has rains you pull the rains but this one is spelled with the

G and the g is silent confusion Reigns what does to rain mean to rign means to rule or to be in control we often use it like this the queen reigned for 50 years but it can also mean to dominate or to control for example in his field He Reigns as the top expert or confusion rained during the Emergen peace reigned after the agreement was signed let's listen to how some other people used it where endless possibility rained a period of chaos rained in the solar system spiritual Pride rained let's look at the pronunciation of

this word repeat after me uncertainty uncertainty don't say uncertainty we hold those te's uncertainty and this news headline is related to the fire in Los Angeles and it said rain to offer relief as uncertainty looms we can say the future is filled with uncertainty and what does to loom mean rain to offer relief as uncertainty looms to loom is to appear large and threatening or likely to happen soon it's close to happening and usually it's something not very good that's coming we often say a crisis is Loom ooming a storm is looming a conflict is

looming a deadline is looming danger is looming and we can say a big store loomed on the horizon exams loomed over the students Minds the deadline is looming and we still have a lot of work to finish some people say an economic crisis is looming if some of these words were new for you I suggest that you watch the video again and take notes write down the meanings and then pause and make your own sentences using the words and keep adding more words to your list and go through the list from time to time practice

the words and that way you'll be able to remember them when you see them again and you'll be able to use them when you're having conversations with native speakers and that is true fluency being able to express yourself on a wide variety of topics thanks for watch watching and keep practicing take your English to the final level of fluency with my online courses the American accent course the 400 Advanced words you must know for fluent English course and the phrasal verbs for fluent English course go to Accurate english.com