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. Ozone

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

An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

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

Grossly offensive to decency or morality.


2. Formidable

Exceeding the limits of propriety or good manners; improperly forward or bold

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

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.


3. Bandolier

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

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

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

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal


4. Hologram

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

The systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished.

A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

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


5. Accentuate

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

A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments.

To stress or emphasize; intensify

A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.


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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.