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. Vacillate

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

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

► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

► The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables

2. Phloem

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

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

► A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

3. Renegade

► A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

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

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

► One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.

4. Light-Year

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

► One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

► Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

► The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

5. Flourish

► Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

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

► The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.

► To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive

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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.