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. Hieroglyphic

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

Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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.


2. Bizarre

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

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

Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

A schedule of prices or fees.


3. Malignant

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

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


4. Zoology

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

A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.


5. Symbiosis

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

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

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

Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.


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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.