Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PLOY

DEFINITION:
A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
“First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” said the 44th president, conceding that it does serve as an effective distraction and ploy for attention.
►The Boston Herald, 02/16/2026

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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. Vaccine

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

► A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

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

► To condescend to give or grant

2. Aspire

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

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

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

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

3. Pulverize

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

► Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.

4. Nebula

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

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

► The method or result of concealing personnel or equipment from an enemy by making them appear to be part of the natural surroundings

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

5. Antibody

► To proclaim publicly

► A Y-shaped protein on the surface of B cells that is secreted into the blood or lymph in response to an antigenic stimulus

► Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

► A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

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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.