Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

PROPOSITION

DEFINITION:
Something offered for consideration or acceptance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
proposition 10 was considered a landmark policy.
►The Los Angeles Times, 12/15/2025

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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. Vacillate

► To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.

► Having a backbone or spinal column.

► A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

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

2. Bandolier

► A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.

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

► A prohibition by a government on certain or all trade with a foreign nation

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

3. Random

► To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

► Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

► A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.

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

4. Virtuoso

► A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.

► One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother.

► 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.

► One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.

5. Metaphor

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

► One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

► A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

► The distribution of energy emitted by a radiant source, arranged in order of wavelengths.

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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.