Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

MISMANAGE

DEFINITION:
To organize or control something badly; to manage incompetently or dishonestly.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Grants had been mismanaged, he stated, and he questioned payments made to CEO Tim Bedwell’s wife, Michele, and her business partner, Adam Kent.
►The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 11/24/2025

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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. Guru

► A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

► A very large and destructive wave, generally caused by a tremendous disturbance in the ocean, such as an undersea earthquake or volcanic eruption.

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

2. Pulverize

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

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

► To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.

3. Nocturnal

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

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

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

► A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

4. Boisterous

► A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

► Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

► A Y-shaped protein on the surface of B cells that is secreted into the blood or lymph in response to an antigenic stimulus

► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

5. Enthusiastic

► Having or demonstrating enthusiasm

► An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze.

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

► The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

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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.