Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PETITIONER

DEFINITION:
A person who pleads with a governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through the use of a petition.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
While presenting the citizens’ petition for debate at the April 11 Spring Town Meeting, petitioners argued that ICE operations in Plymouth have “created fear” and “disrupted lives” among the immigrant community, leading to what they call a distrust of local police.
►The Boston Herald, 04/20/2026

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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. Gargoyle

► Self-examination.

► A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae,

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.

2. Ellipse

► A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

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

3. Deduction

► To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

► The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

► 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.

4. Recede

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

► One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.

► To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark

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

5. Plateau

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

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

► An ammunition belt, worn over the shoulder, having loops or pockets for cartridges.

► The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants, consisting primarily of tracheids and vessels; woody tissue.

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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.