Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PETITIONER

DEFINITION:
A person who pleads with a governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through the use of a petition.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
While presenting the citizens’ petition for debate at the April 11 Spring Town Meeting, petitioners argued that ICE operations in Plymouth have “created fear” and “disrupted lives” among the immigrant community, leading to what they call a distrust of local police.
The Boston Herald, 04/20/2026

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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. Tsunami

Self-examination.

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

A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.

The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.


2. Repose

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

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

Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.


3. Typhoon

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

The food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.


4. Antibody

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

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

A Y-shaped protein on the surface of B cells that is secreted into the blood or lymph in response to an antigenic stimulus

One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.


5. Tundra

Relating to a system of writing, such as that of ancient Egypt, in which pictorial symbols are used to represent meaning or sounds or a combination of meaning and sound.

One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.

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

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


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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.