Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

BILLIONAIRE

DEFINITION:
One whose wealth is estimated at a billion or more dollars, pounds, or other monetary units.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
About a dozen people took part in the “March for billionaires” on Saturday morning in San Francisco to raise awareness about the plight of the ultrarich.
The Los Angeles Times, 02/09/2026

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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. Formidable

To cringe in fear

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.


2. Labyrinth

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

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

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

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.


3. Jaunty

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

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

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


4. Laconic

The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.


5. Bizarre

One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

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

A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.


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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.