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. Participle

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

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

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.

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.


2. Deduction

The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.

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

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

Self-examination.


3. Phloem

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

Self-examination.

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

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


4. Exponent

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

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

To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.


5. Ultraviolet

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

Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold

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


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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.