Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

THRESHOLD

DEFINITION:
A level, point, or value at which something is true.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Child poverty — an assessment of whether pretax income for households with children falls below the latest poverty threshold — declined more significantly in New Mexico in the last three years, dropping from an estimated rate of 24.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 20.9% from 2023 to 2025.
►The Albuquerque Journal, 09/28/2026

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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. Xylem

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

► The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids and vessels; woody tissue.

► A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.


2. Strategy

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

► Being without or almost without hope

► The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.

► The arrangement of events in time


3. Vacillate

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

► 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.


4. Jaunty

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

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

► Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

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


5. Accentuate

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

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


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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.