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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. Tsunami

The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

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

Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.

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.


2. Zoology

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

The branch of biology that deals with animals and animal life, including the study of the structure, physiology, development, and classification of animals.

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

A dense evergreen forest occupying a tropical region with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches.


3. Lichen

A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae,

A treeless area between the icecap and the tree line of Arctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil and supporting low-growing vegetation

To proclaim publicly

Any of several rod-shaped bacteria, of the genus Salmonella, that cause food poisoning and other diseases.


4. Light-Year

The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year.

Loud, noisy, and lacking in restraint or discipline

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

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


5. Analogy

Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective.

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

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

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.


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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.