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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

BACKLOT

DEFINITION:
An area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who serves the 4th District, makes her way across an empty, unnamed backlot, presenting her case to be the city’s next mayor.
The Los Angeles Times, 05/18/2026

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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. Malignant

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

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

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

Incorrectness of reasoning or belief


2. Quarantine

Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.

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

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

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.


3. Delegate

Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.

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


4. Accentuate

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

To stress or emphasize; intensify

To honor the memory of with a ceremony

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


5. Embargo

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

Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

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

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


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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.