Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

OVERZEALOUS

DEFINITION:
Showing too much energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, attributed the encounter to an “overzealous poll worker who was complaining to the officer that the councilor shouldn’t have even been inside.”
The Boston Herald, 11/17/2025

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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. Symbiosis

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

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

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.


2. Nocturnal

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

A poisonous substance, especially a protein, that is produced by living cells or organisms.

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night


3. Renaissance

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

A rebirth or revival.

The act of resting or the state of being at rest.

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


4. Deign

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

Having a buoyant or self-confident air; brisk.

An embankment built to prevent flooding

To condescend to give or grant


5. Aspire

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

Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

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


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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.