tab·loid

[tab-loid]
noun
1.
a newspaper whose pages, usually five columns wide, are about one-half the size of a standard-sized newspaper page.
2.
a newspaper this size concentrating on sensational and lurid news, usually heavily illustrated.
3.
a short form or version; condensation; synopsis; summary.
adjective
4.
compressed or condensed in or as if in a tabloid: a tabloid article; a tabloid account of the adventure.
5.
luridly or vulgarly sensational.
00:10
Tabloid is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

Origin:
1905–10; tabl(et) + -oid

tab·loid·ism, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To tabloid
Collins
World English Dictionary
tabloid (ˈtæblɔɪd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  Compare broadsheet a newspaper with pages about 30 cm (12 inches) by 40 cm (16 inches), usually characterized by an emphasis on photographs and a concise and often sensational style
2.  (modifier) designed to appeal to a mass audience or readership; sensationalist: the tabloid press; tabloid television
 
[C20: from earlier Tabloid, a trademark for a medicine in tablet form]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

tabloid
1884, "small tablet of medicine," trademark name (by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co.) for compressed or concentrated chemicals and drugs, formed from tablet + Gk.-derived suffix -oid, from oeides "like." By 1898, it was being used figuratively to mean a compressed form or dose
of anything, hence tabloid journalism (1901), and newspapers that typified it (1918), so called for having short, condensed news articles and/or for being small in size.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
Literary critics bemoan her cardboard characters and tabloid style.
So fervent is the tabloid interest that the two stars, who should be promoting
  their movie, are on another continent.
What started as a quick target for the tabloid press and radio shock jocks has
  grown to a guilty national pleasure.
The tabloid tends to aggressively go after the royal family.
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