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. Pulverize

Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.

A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy

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


2. Cower

The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

To cringe in fear

An ammunition belt, worn over the shoulder, having loops or pockets for cartridges.

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


3. Formidable

Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

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

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

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


4. Immune

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

Having a backbone or spinal column.

A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.


5. Jovial

A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.


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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.