Learn 14 important English newspaper vocabulary

What are the most common and important newspaper vocabulary? How to use them? Stay with us in the rest of this article!

If you are into the news, the chances are high that you like to read the newspaper. Nowadays you can read a newspaper either in printed or pdf form. It doesn’t matter which format you prefer more, there is some special English newspaper vocabulary that may harden the experience for you.

That’s the purpose of this lesson. We are going to look at some of the most common words and phrases that you will probably see in newspapers. Let’s go!

 

Why are English newspapers hard?

 

If you’ve ever seen a newspaper and actually tried to read it, you might notice that it’s a bit harder than other written content like books or novels.

The reason is that the newspapers are either too formal or sometimes too informal and sometimes they use some nouns and verbs which are not very common.

English newspaper vocabulary are vacabs that you must get familiar with to understand the news meaning.

 

1.   English newspaper vocabulary (The front page )

 

The front page is the first page of the newspaper with the most important information.

 

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2.   An article

 

If you see within the newspaper, you can see many articles. An article is a text about anything. Actually what you are reading right now is an article too!

 

3.   A headline

 

Each article begins with a very big title (the title is of English newspaper vocabulary) that is called a headline. So a headline is a big title at the beginning of the article.

 

4.   A journalist

 

Let’s talk about the people who are working with the newspaper. The first person that probably came to your mind is a journalist. A journalist works for the newspaper and gathers the news.

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5.   English newspaper vocabulary (A column)

 

One of the vocabs of English newspaper vocabulary is the column. A column is an article that is written vertically and does not take up the entire page. It’s usually on the side of the page.

 

Pronunciation tip

Pay close attention to this word’s pronunciation. When you want to say “column” you shouldn’t pronounce the letter “n” at the end of the word (/kOlUHm/).
“n” in this word is a silent letter. Silent letters are written but they are not pronounced. If you want to know more about them, click here.

 

6.   A columnist

 

As the journalist writes the articles, the columnist writes the columns for the newspaper. So a columnist is a person who writes down the columns.

Pronunciation tip

Remember that in this word the letter “n” is not silent anymore and you should pronounce it ([KOL] + [UHM] + [NIST]).

 

7.   The press

 

Another common word of English newspaper vocabulary is the press!

What is the press? The press is the newspapers, all the journalists and columnists who work for them.

 

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8.   To clash with somebody

Now let’s read some headlines together and learn more English newspaper vocabulary .

“Football fans clashed with the police”

To clash with somebody means to have a fight with somebody or to disagree with somebody seriously. So the sentence above means that football fans fought with the police.

9.  English newspaper vocabulary (axe)

“200 axed car workers protest in the city center.”

• Axe as a noun is a tool that cut wood.
• Axe as a verb means to reduce the number of jobs, employees, or services.

So the sentence means that 200 car workers who have lost their jobs protest in the city center. Let’s see another example:

• The company is to axe 350 employees.

It means that the company is going to fire 350 employees.

10. Bomb scare

 

 

Another word of English newspaper vocabulary is “Bomb scare”

“bomb scare in the city center.”

We can express our fright with “to be scared of” or “to be afraid of”. For example:

• I’m afraid of spiders.

A scare is a situation in which many people are afraid or are worried about something. for instance, a bomb scare (there is a bomb and all of the people are worried.), a food scare (shortage of food), health scare (a life-threatening situation that is usually related to diseases.).

 

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11. To demonstrate

 

“Nurses demonstrate over tax changes.”

To demonstrate means to protest, that is a common word of English newspaper vocabulary . What is the meaning of protest?

To protest means to say or to show that you disagree with something publicly.

So the sentence means that nurses disagreed with the tax changes, so they went out and they protested.

Pronunciation tip

When you want to pronounce “protest”, you should put stress on the second syllable.
But the pronunciation is a bit different when you want to use “protest” as a noun (/ˈproʊˌtest/).

12. English newspaper vocabulary (to claim)

“Man claims dog can talk”.

To claim means to say that something is true without evidence and proof.

So the sentence means that man just says that dog can talk and he is not showing any proof.

 

Learn more: Learn about the most common boring words in English.

 

 

13. To pledge something

This is another word of English newspaper vocabulary that you should learn about.

“Government pledges aid for the retired”.

To pledge something means to make a formal promise to do something or to give something.

The example means that the government promises formally to give something to the retired.

14. Aid

Aid is a synonym for help. There are different types of aid. For example, financial aid, health care aid, food aid, etc.

 

Learn more: words to describe personality

 

To sum up

Let’s review the words and phrases that we’ve learned today

Vocabulary	Definition
1. The front page	The first page of the newspaper
2. an article	A text about anything
3. a headline	A big title at the beginning of an article
4. a journalist	A journalist works for the newspaper
5. a column	An article that is written vertically
6. a columnist	The columnist writes the columns for the newspaper
7. the press	The newspapers, all the journalists and columnists
8. to clash with somebody	to have a fight with somebody / to disagree with somebody
9. axe	to reduce the number of jobs, employees or service
10. bomb scare	A situation in which many people are afraid or are worried about something
11. to demonstrate	to show that you disagree with something publicly
12. to claim	to say that something is true without evidence
13. to pledge something	to make a formal promise to do something
14. aid	help