Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

VERTEBRAE

DEFINITION:
Each of the series of small bones forming the backbone.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The photographer with The Washington Post who was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank so badly that several vertebrae were broken said Sunday she was increasingly angry that Israel’s military seems to protect settlers more than the Palestinians they threaten.
►Associated Press, 10/19/2026

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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. Outrageous

► To take in by elaborate methods of deceit

► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal


2. Pulverize

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

► Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold

► Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

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


3. Antibody

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

► A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.

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

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.


4. Eclectic

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

► One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

► A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.


5. Silhouette

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

► To proclaim publicly

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

► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline


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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.