Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

BILLIONAIRE

DEFINITION:
One whose wealth is estimated at a billion or more dollars, pounds, or other monetary units.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
About a dozen people took part in the “March for billionaires” on Saturday morning in San Francisco to raise awareness about the plight of the ultrarich.
►The Los Angeles Times, 02/09/2026

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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. Malignant

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

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

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

2. Sacrifice

► Any of various nonplacental mammals, including kangaroos, opossums, bandicoots, and wombats, found principally in Australia and the Americas.

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

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

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

3. Protagonist

► A metric unit of length equal to 1,000 meters (0.62 mile).

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

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

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

4. Camouflage

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

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

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

► Self-examination.

5. Virtuoso

► A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

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

► An alteration or change, as in nature, form, or quality.

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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.