Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

BACKLOT

DEFINITION:
An area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who serves the 4th District, makes her way across an empty, unnamed backlot, presenting her case to be the city’s next mayor.
The Los Angeles Times, 05/18/2026

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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. Labyrinth

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

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

To cringe in fear

Being without or almost without hope


2. Accentuate

To stress or emphasize; intensify

Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable.

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.


3. Renegade

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

A proportional part or share.

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

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


4. Embargo

A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

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

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

A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


5. Mosaic

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

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

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


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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.