Is veneration worship? I answered this question calling adoration and veneration honor given to God and the saints accordingly.  

If you look at the edits for my answer, I think I had some confusion as to the terminology which is popping up again and I still don't know what to do about it.  I can repeat the old maxim, "we adore God, we venerate Our Lady and the saints." But then, if asked to define those terms I'd have to say, adoration is worship due only to God and veneration is worship due to those in Heaven who are not God.  

If I couldn't call them both worship, then I couldn't accurately compare them and people would say that I couldn't pray to both.  If I call both worship, then I take a great step into the land of idolatry and ancestor worship.  

This is a Catholic questioned aimed at answers that teenagers would be able to grasp, but all reasonable answers will be considered reasonably :)
"Veneration" and "worship" are imprecise terms.  The precise terms are:

Dulia: a theological term signifying the honor paid to the saints.

Hyperdulia: a theological term signifying the honour paid to Mary the mother of Jesus.

Latria: a theological term signifying the honour paid to God.

"Veneration" is commonly associated with dulia and hyperdulia; "worship" is commonly associated with latria, but to be technically precise, "veneration" and "worship" are not formally defined on their own.

Because the English language terms are imprecise, depending on the setting or context it would be best to disambiguate the terminology and use the Latin terms instead, mentioning that certain English words are commonly used in place of the Latin words, but the Latin terms are the precise ones (at least that's how my catechism and religion teachers handled the issue of word selection).

Note: the Catholic encyclopedia's definition of latria is rather weak; pragraph 55 of Pope Paul 6th's encylical Mysterium Fidei implies that latria is worship meant for God alone (emphasis mine):


  Moreover, the Catholic Church has held firm to this belief in the
  presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Eucharist not only in her
  teaching but in her life as well, since she has at all times paid this
  great Sacrament the worship known as "latria," which may be given to
  God alone.