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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.
This Week's Word In The News 

DISCERN

DEFINITION:
To see, recognize, or understand something that is not clear.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
As you can discern, we have a rather complex group of vehicle violations that need to be cured.
►The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 10/26/2026

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. Metaphor

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

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

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

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


2. Tranquility

► A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

► 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 quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

► A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.


3. Boycott

► To proclaim publicly

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

► 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

► In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable.


4. Voracious

► The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.

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

► The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

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


5. Undulate

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

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

► To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.


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