Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACCOST

DEFINITION:
To approach and speak to (someone) in an often challenging or aggressive way.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
As their identities became more public, the operators were even accosted in their off hours.
►The Anchorage Daily News, 09/21/2026

Generate your own quiz
Select a grade level
 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School
Select a quiz type
 By words
 By Definitions
Select how many questions
5   10   15   20  

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. Boycott

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

► To proclaim publicly

► To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative


2. Toxin

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

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

► A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy


3. Inference

► To condescend to give or grant

► The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

► A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

► The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.


4. Jaunty

► The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.

► The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables

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

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


5. Technique

► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

► The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

► A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness

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


Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions

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.