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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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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. Embargo

► The main character in a drama or other literary work.

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

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

2. Nocturnal

► Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

► One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

3. Lichen

► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

► A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae,

► Any of various relatively small sailing or motor-driven vessels used for pleasure cruises or racing.

4. Ellipse

► The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

► One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.

► Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

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

5. Tariff

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

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

► A schedule of prices or fees.

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

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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.

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