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. Enthusiastic

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

A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

Having or demonstrating enthusiasm


2. Camouflage

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.

The method or result of concealing personnel or equipment from an enemy by making them appear to be part of the natural surroundings

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.


3. Tumult

To honor the memory of with a ceremony

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.

A rebirth or revival.

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


4. Zoology

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

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

A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


5. Participle

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

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

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

A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.


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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.