Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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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. Jaunty

► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

► 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.

► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.

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

2. Sacrifice

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

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

► A disorderly commotion or disturbance.

► 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

3. Repose

► 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

► Self-examination.

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

► The main character in a drama or other literary work.

4. Tranquility

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

► To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

5. Wretched

► A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

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

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

► A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.

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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.