Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PROPOSITION

DEFINITION:
Something offered for consideration or acceptance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
proposition 10 was considered a landmark policy.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/15/2025

Generate your own quiz
Select a grade level
 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School
Select a quiz type
 By words
 By Definitions
Select how many questions
5   10   15   20  

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. Salmonella

► A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

► Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

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

► Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

2. Embargo

► To proclaim publicly

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

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

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

3. Hieroglyphic

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

► 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 food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

4. Accentuate

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

5. Tranquility

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

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

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

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

Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions

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.