Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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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. Random

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

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

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.


2. Exponent

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

An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze.

To take in by elaborate methods of deceit

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates


3. Plateau

A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

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

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.


4. Exult

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

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

An embankment built to prevent flooding

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant


5. Unanimous

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

To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark

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

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


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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.