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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 

BILLIONAIRE

DEFINITION:
One whose wealth is estimated at a billion or more dollars, pounds, or other monetary units.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
About a dozen people took part in the “March for billionaires” on Saturday morning in San Francisco to raise awareness about the plight of the ultrarich.
The Los Angeles Times, 02/09/2026

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. Kilometer

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

A metric unit of length equal to 1,000 meters (0.62 mile).

A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.

A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.


2. Polygon

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

An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze.

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.


3. Recede

To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark

A schedule of prices or fees.

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

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


4. Nebula

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

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

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

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


5. Tundra

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

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

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

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


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