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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 

INSPECTOR

DEFINITION:
An official employed to ensure that official regulations are obeyed, especially in public services.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are federal employees, and misconduct allegations are typically investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility or by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of inspector General.
The Key West Citizen, 03/16/2026

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. Virtuoso

A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

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

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

To cringe in fear


2. Tundra

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

To cringe in fear

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

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


3. Marsupial

Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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


4. Jaunty

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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

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

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.


5. Ellipse

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

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

The arrangement of events in time

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.


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