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. Light-Year

A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

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

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


2. Levee

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

A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

An embankment built to prevent flooding

The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.


3. Renaissance

Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

A rebirth or revival.

Of or relating to the range of invisible radiation wavelengths from about 4 nanometers, on the border of the x-ray region, to about 380 nanometers, just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum.

A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


4. Alliteration

Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

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

A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.


5. Virtuoso

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

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

A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.


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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.