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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

WILDFIRE

DEFINITION:
An unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
It was not yet clear how the wildfires started, but a long drought, low humidity and strong winds were fueling them.
►The Key West Citizen, 04/27/2026

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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. Sacrifice

► The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

► Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

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

2. Undulate

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

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

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

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

3. Cower

► To cringe in fear

► A schedule of prices or fees.

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

► One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.

4. Deduction

► One that takes in everything available, as with the mind.

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

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

► Relating to a system of writing, such as that of ancient Egypt, in which pictorial symbols are used to represent meaning or sounds or a combination of meaning and sound.

5. Tundra

► To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

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

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

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

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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.