Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

INSPECTOR

DEFINITION:
An official employed to ensure that official regulations are obeyed, especially in public services.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are federal employees, and misconduct allegations are typically investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility or by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of inspector General.
►The Key West Citizen, 03/16/2026

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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. Deign

► 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.

► To condescend to give or grant

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

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

2. Quarantine

► The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

► The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.

► A proportional part or share.

► Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.

3. Polygon

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

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

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

► The food-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting of sieve tubes, fibers, parenchyma, and sclereids.

4. Accentuate

► The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

► A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

5. Participle

► A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

► The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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

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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.