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. Commemorate

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

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

► To honor the memory of with a ceremony

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

2. Sacrifice

► Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

► A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace

► Appropriateness of behavior or conduct

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

3. Nebula

► To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.

► A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness

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

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

4. Maneuver

► Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

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

► A movement or procedure involving skill and dexterity.

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

5. Vertebrate

► To stress or emphasize; intensify

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

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

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

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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.