Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

LITIGANT

DEFINITION:
Someone involved in a lawsuit.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
With the widespread and transformative use of artificial intelligence — particularly generative AI — in daily life, federal and state courts in New Mexico are finding self-represented litigants and some attorneys filing legal cases containing false or misleading information.
►The Albuquerque Journal, 04/13/2026

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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. Participle

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

► The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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

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

2. Chronology

► The arrangement of events in time

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

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

► A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

3. Commemorate

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

► A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

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

4. Xylem

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

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

► In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable.

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

5. Jovial

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

► Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

► Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

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

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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.