Ripped from the Headlines: May 2025: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for May 18–May 24, 2025

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized remains of an extinct sea creature that resembled modern arthropods. The finger-sized Mosura fentoni, or sea moth, had a round mouth full of teeth, three eyes, claws, and flaps used for swimming. Like insects, spiders, and crustaceans, the sea moth was also spineless and had a hard, shell-like exoskeleton covering its segmented body. The Greek roots of arthropod are arthro, "joint," and podos, "foot."

For the first time ever, NASA's Perseverance rover detected a glowing green aurora on Mars. Solar flares and massive explosions of gas and energy on the surface of the sun caused the brilliant light shows around the solar system, including on Earth. Thanks to Perseverance's location on Mars, astronomers were able to view an aurora from the surface of another planet. The Latin Aurora is the name of the Roman dawn goddess, from a root that means "light."

Many residents of Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri are bereft after devastating tornadoes swept through the region, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least 28 people. Survivors sorted through the debris left behind by the twisters, some of them having lost their houses and most of their possessions. Local organizations stepped in to help struggling storm victims. Bereft comes from the Old English bereafian, "to deprive of or take away by violence."

San Francisco residents are divided over the city's dozens of coyotes, which are thriving in the city after being eliminated there in the early 20th century. The canines, which live in small packs or pairs, sometimes attack little dogs, though they are rarely aggressive toward humans. Coyotes are native to the area, and these resident wild dogs help keep the rat population in check. Coyote is from an Aztec word, coyotl.

A study showed that air pollution in Bangladesh can be improved by stacking bricks in a different way before they're baked in kilns. As hand-packed bricks are fired inside the coal-burning ovens, black smoke pours out of them. Researchers found that allowing space between the bricks in the kiln makes them heat more efficiently and produces much less toxic smoke. The Latin root of kiln is culina, "kitchen or cooking stove."

Former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an advanced form of prostate cancer. Despite the fact that the cancer cells had already metastasized, spreading to his bones, doctors said they were also hormone-sensitive, meaning Biden will likely respond well to treatment. For men in the United States, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosis. Metastasize is from the Greek metastasis, "a changing."

The craft of creating miniatures became popular during the Covid-19 pandemic, and interest has grown over the last five years. More and more artists are making tiny versions of houses, stitching scaled-down curtains and pillowcases by hand and painting and wallpapering diminutive walls. Others post videos of wee kitchens where almond-sized eggs are cooked over teeny candle flames. Miniature artists say they love the control they have over every aspect of their own little worlds.

The UN Refugee Agency helped repatriate hundreds of Rwandans who have lived in Congo since fleeing the 1994 genocide. About 360 people were returned to their native country, where they will receive support as they reintegrate after their long exile. Though some returnees were born in Congo to Rwandan refugees, they described a strong connection to their homeland. Re-, "back," and patria, "native land," are the Latin roots of repatriate.

A new study showed a steep decline in the use of semicolons by British students. The trend applies to books published in English as well; nearly twice as many of the punctuation marks were used in 2000 than in 2024. Semicolons indicate a pause between two complete clauses; most writers choose to break them into separate sentences, or to use a conjunction such as "and" instead.

Scientists determined that when flamingos dip their heads underwater, they are creating vortexes to help them suck up their prey. Using their long beaks and repeated bobs of their heads, the birds stir the water into mini-whirlpools that send brine shrimp, small crustaceans, and algae into their mouths. The flamingos' large feet are also constantly moving, kicking up sediment from below. Vortex is from the Latin vertere, "to turn."