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. Wretched

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

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

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable.


2. Pulverize

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

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

An ammunition belt, worn over the shoulder, having loops or pockets for cartridges.

To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.


3. Yacht

Any of various relatively small sailing or motor-driven vessels used for pleasure cruises or racing.

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

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace


4. Phloem

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

The food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.


5. Strategy

Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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.