Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

THRESHOLD

DEFINITION:
A level, point, or value at which something is true.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Child poverty — an assessment of whether pretax income for households with children falls below the latest poverty threshold — declined more significantly in New Mexico in the last three years, dropping from an estimated rate of 24.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 20.9% from 2023 to 2025.
►The Albuquerque Journal, 09/28/2026

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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. Salmonella

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

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

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

► A schedule of prices or fees.


2. Formidable

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

► Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

► To condescend to give or grant

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.


3. Tundra

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

► To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive

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

► Appropriateness of behavior or conduct


4. Rainforest

► To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.

► A person authorized to act as representative for another; a deputy.

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

► The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.


5. Typhoon

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

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

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


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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.