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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.
This Week's Word In The News 

FOOTHOLD

DEFINITION:
A position usable as a base for further advance.

FOUND IN THE NEWS:
Growing national anxiety over the impact of massive data centers on communities has found a foothold in Greater Boston in the form of Markley’s Lowell location.
The Boston Herald, 08/10/2026

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. Analogy

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

A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

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.

Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.


2. Unanimous

To stress or emphasize; intensify

Sharing the same opinions or views; being in complete harmony or accord.

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

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


3. Voracious

Having a backbone or spinal column.

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

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

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


4. Zoology

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

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

To condescend to give or grant

The quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.


5. Lichen

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

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

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

To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.


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