Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

SUREFIRE

DEFINITION:
Certain or likely, especially to succeed.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Kirby taught himself how to count cards, a surefire way to get barred from gambling at a casino, “raking in money on trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” the article stated.
►The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 05/04/2026

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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. Jaunty

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

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

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

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

2. Tariff

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

► A schedule of prices or fees.

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

► The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

3. Mutation

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

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

► An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.

► The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables

4. Nuisance

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

► One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.

► Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

► 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.

5. Fallacy

► One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.

► Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

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

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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.