Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

COERCE

DEFINITION:
To persuade someone forcefully to do something that they are unwilling to do.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Lina Kahn, a former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, said that Google was using its “search monopoly to coerce schools” into adopting its AI.
►The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/09/2026

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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. Mutation

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

► An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

► One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.


2. Virtuoso

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

► A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

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


3. Fallacy

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

► Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

► Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

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


4. Silhouette

► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

► Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.

► A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

► A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae,


5. Xylem

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

► An embankment built to prevent flooding

► The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

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


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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.