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. Introspection

► Self-examination.

► A rebirth or revival.

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

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

2. Jovial

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

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

► Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

► Incorrectness of reasoning or belief

3. Embargo

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

► A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

4. Hypocrisy

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

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

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

5. Exponent

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

► One that speaks for, represents, or advocates

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

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

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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.