Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

VERTEBRAE

DEFINITION:
Each of the series of small bones forming the backbone.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
The photographer with The Washington Post who was attacked by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank so badly that several vertebrae were broken said Sunday she was increasingly angry that Israel’s military seems to protect settlers more than the Palestinians they threaten.
►Associated Press, 10/19/2026

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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. Kilometer

► Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.

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

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

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


2. Malignant

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

► To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

► The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids and vessels; woody tissue.


3. Despondent

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

► Being without or almost without hope

► Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

► The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.


4. Outrageous

► The pattern produced on a photosensitive medium that has been exposed by holography and then photographically developed.

► To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive

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

► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.


5. Dialogue

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

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

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

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


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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.