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Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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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. Eclectic

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

► Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

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

2. Exult

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

► To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

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

► A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective.

3. Malignant

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

► Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

4. Hieroglyphic

► 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.

► Of or relating to the range of invisible radiation wavelengths from about 4 nanometers, on the border of the x-ray region, to about 380 nanometers, just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum.

► Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

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

5. Tariff

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

► Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

► A schedule of prices or fees.

► Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.

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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.