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Home / Weekly Lessons / Words in the News

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. Quota

► 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.

► Relating to a system of writing, such as that of ancient Egypt, in which pictorial symbols are used to represent meaning or sounds or a combination of meaning and sound.

► A proportional part or share.

► A state of uncertainty or perplexity.

2. Yacht

► A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

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

► The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

► Any of various relatively small sailing or motor-driven vessels used for pleasure cruises or racing.

3. Ozone

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

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

► Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative

► An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen.

4. Solstice

► A metric unit of length equal to 1,000 meters (0.62 mile).

► A member of an irregular, usually indigenous military or paramilitary unit operating in small bands in occupied territory to harass and undermine the enemy

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

► Either of two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.

5. Quarantine

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

► Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

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

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

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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.
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