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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. Marsupial

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

To take in by elaborate methods of deceit

Marked by hearty conviviality and good cheer.

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


2. Tumult

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

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

A disorderly commotion or disturbance.

A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane.


3. Plateau

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

The right or privilege of voting; franchise.

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

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


4. Nocturnal

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

Of, relating to, or occurring in the night

A rebirth or revival.

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


5. Ultraviolet

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal

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.

A teacher and guide in spiritual and philosophical matters.

Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.


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