Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

SUREFIRE

DEFINITION:
Certain or likely, especially to succeed.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Kirby taught himself how to count cards, a surefire way to get barred from gambling at a casino, “raking in money on trips to Atlantic City and Las Vegas,” the article stated.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 05/04/2026

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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. Plateau

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

An elevated, comparatively level expanse of land; a tableland.

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

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


2. Zoology

To condescend to give or grant

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

Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.


3. Labyrinth

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

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

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


4. Nebula

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

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

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.


5. Boycott

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.

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

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

A schedule of prices or fees.


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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.