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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. Quandary

Self-examination.

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

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.

A state of uncertainty or perplexity.


2. Technique

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

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

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

To cringe in fear


3. Symbiosis

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal

Selecting or employing individual elements from a variety of sources, systems, or styles

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.


4. Bizarre

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.

A preparation of a weakened or killed pathogen.

Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style or appearance; odd

A grotesque ornamental figure or projection.


5. Outrageous

Grossly offensive to decency or morality.

Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

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

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


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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.