Home Order Login Verify About NIE Sponsor NIE Contact Us
Geography Last Week Front Page Cartoons News Video Words Use the News History Special Report Pulse NASA

Words in the News

This Week's Word In The News 

ADVERSE

DEFINITION:
Having a negative or harmful effect on something.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
There was no evidence of “any adverse or harmful chemical or other exposures,” he wrote.
The Boston Herald, 06/15/2026

Generate your own quiz
Select a grade level
 Elementary
 Middle School
 High School
Select a quiz type
 By words
 By Definitions
Select how many questions
5   10   15   20  

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. Despondent

A rebirth or revival.

To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark

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

Being without or almost without hope


2. Renegade

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.

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

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

One who rejects a religion, cause, allegiance, or group for another; a deserter.


3. Nebula

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

Not subject to an obligation imposed on others; exempt.

Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.

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


4. Tsunami

To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant

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

To stress or emphasize; intensify

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


5. Bamboozle

To take in by elaborate methods of deceit

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

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

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


Get more Quizzes 

 Elementary School    Middle School   High School  

 By Word     By Definition    5  10  15  20 Questions

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.