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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PETITIONER

DEFINITION:
A person who pleads with a governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through the use of a petition.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
While presenting the citizens’ petition for debate at the April 11 Spring Town Meeting, petitioners argued that ICE operations in Plymouth have “created fear” and “disrupted lives” among the immigrant community, leading to what they call a distrust of local police.
►The Boston Herald, 04/20/2026

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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. Marsupial

► Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

► 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

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

► A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

2. Nuisance

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

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

► Being without or almost without hope

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

3. Exult

► An embankment built to prevent flooding

► In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable.

► To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

► The main character in a drama or other literary work.

4. Stereotype

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

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

► A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

► Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

5. Vertebrate

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

► The drawing of a conclusion by reasoning; the act of deducing.

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

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

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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.