Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PLOY

DEFINITION:
A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
“First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” said the 44th president, conceding that it does serve as an effective distraction and ploy for attention.
►The Boston Herald, 02/16/2026

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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. Labyrinth

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

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

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

► A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

2. Boycott

► 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

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

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

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

3. Bandolier

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

► A proportional part or share.

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

► Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

4. Malignant

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

► Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.

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

► A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

5. Ozone

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

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

► The arrangement of events in time

► A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

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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.