Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

INSPECTOR

DEFINITION:
An official employed to ensure that official regulations are obeyed, especially in public services.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are federal employees, and misconduct allegations are typically investigated by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility or by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of inspector General.
The Key West Citizen, 03/16/2026

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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. Outrageous

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

Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

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.

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder


2. Typhoon

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

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

A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.

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


3. Jaunty

To honor the memory of with a ceremony

Being without or almost without hope

A cult or religious movement, a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs.

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.


4. Malignant

The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence.

To condescend to give or grant

Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

Harmful, malevolent, injurious. Harmfully cancerous.


5. Hypocrisy

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.

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

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

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


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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.