Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PLOY

DEFINITION:
A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
“First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” said the 44th president, conceding that it does serve as an effective distraction and ploy for attention.
►The Boston Herald, 02/16/2026

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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. Stereotype

► Being without or almost without hope

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

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

2. Recede

► A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

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

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

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

3. Ultraviolet

► One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.

► One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.

► 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.

► The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.

4. Quandary

► A proportional part or share.

► Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

► The method or result of concealing personnel or equipment from an enemy by making them appear to be part of the natural surroundings

5. Bizarre

► Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

► An embankment built to prevent flooding

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

► Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

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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.