Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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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. Accentuate

A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.

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

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

To stress or emphasize; intensify


2. Despondent

Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

Being without or almost without hope

To honor the memory of with a ceremony

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.


3. Plateau

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.

An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.


4. Ellipse

A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

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

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


5. Jaunty

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

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

The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.


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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.