Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PETITIONER

DEFINITION:
A person who pleads with a governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through the use of a petition.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
While presenting the citizens’ petition for debate at the April 11 Spring Town Meeting, petitioners argued that ICE operations in Plymouth have “created fear” and “disrupted lives” among the immigrant community, leading to what they call a distrust of local police.
The Boston Herald, 04/20/2026

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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. Camouflage

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

The method or result of concealing personnel or equipment from an enemy by making them appear to be part of the natural surroundings

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

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


2. Embargo

To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

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

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

To take in by elaborate methods of deceit


3. Participle

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

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

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

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


4. Flourish

A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive

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

Grossly offensive to decency or morality.


5. Mosaic

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

Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

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

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.


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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.