Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ACQUAINTANCE

DEFINITION:
A person one knows slightly, but who is not a close friend.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
When photographer Peter Turnley was just 20 years old, an acquaintance from the California Office of Economic Opportunity reached out to him with a question.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/01/2025

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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. Hypocrisy

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

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

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

► 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.

2. Phloem

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

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

► To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

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

3. Quarantine

► Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

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

► Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

4. Bandolier

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

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

► A proportional part or share.

► A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

5. Zoology

► One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

► Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

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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.