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Common Core State Standard
LS.CCS.4/5/6 Grades 3-12: Students are asked to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words through multiple choice vocabulary quizzes. Quizzes are designed to help students demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in words, acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words, and gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. Students are then asked to find the words within the newspaper and copy the sentence for context to its overall meaning or function in a sentence.
This Week's Word In The News 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

Words in the News Quiz
5 Middle School Words

Click on the correct answer in the quiz below.
Then see if you can find the word in your newspaper -- the print edition, the website or the digital edition and copy the sentence for context. NOTE: High School words are much harder to find!


1. Technique

To stress or emphasize; intensify

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.


2. Solstice

Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold

Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.


3. Marsupial

Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.

A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.


4. Nebula

A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.


5. Polygon

A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.


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