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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. Metaphor

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

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

A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables


2. Outrageous

A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile, filled in with a solid color.

The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables

Having a backbone or spinal column.

Grossly offensive to decency or morality.


3. Ellipse

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

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

The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war.

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


4. Tranquility

The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

To honor the memory of with a ceremony

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


5. Symbiosis

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

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

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.


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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.