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standards

[stan-derd]

noun

something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model.

an object that is regarded as the usual or most common size or form of its kind: We stock the deluxe models as well as the standards.

a rule or principle that is used as a basis for judgment: They tried to establish standards for a new philosophical approach.

an average or normal requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.: His work this week hasn't been up to his usual standard.

standards, those morals, ethics, habits, etc., established by authority, custom, or an individual as acceptable: He tried to live up to his father's standards.

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a grade of beef immediately below good.

the authorized exemplar of a unit of weight or measure.

a certain commodity in or by which a basic monetary unit is stated. Compare gold standard, silver standard, bimetallism, monometallism.

the legally established content of full-weight coins.

10.

the prescribed degree of fineness for gold or silver.

11.

British. a class or grade in elementary schools.

12.

a musical piece of sufficiently enduring popularity to be made part of a permanent repertoire, especially a popular song.

13.

a flag indicating the presence of a sovereign or public official.

14.

a flag, emblematic figure, or other object raised on a pole to indicate the rallying point of an army, fleet, etc.

15.

Military.

any of various military or naval flags.

the colors of a mounted unit.

(initial capital letter) a U.S. Navy radar-guided surface-to-air missile with a range of 10–30 miles (16–48 km).

16.

Heraldry. a long, tapering flag or ensign, as of a monarch or a nation.

17.

something that stands or is placed upright.

18.

a long candlestick or candelabrum used in a church.

19.

an upright support or supporting part.

20.

Armor. a standing collar of mail.

21.

Horticulture. a plant trained or grafted to have a single, erect, treelike stem.

22.

Botany. a distinct petal, larger than the rest, of certain flowers; a vexillum.

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adjective

23.

serving as a basis of weight, measure, value, comparison, or judgment.

24.

of recognized excellence or established authority: a standard reference on medieval history.

25.

usual, common, or customary: Chairs are standard furniture in American households.

26.

manual; not electric or automatic: standard transmission.

27.

conforming in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc., to the usage of most educated native speakers, especially those having prestige, and widely considered acceptable or correct: Standard American English; standard pronunciation. Compare nonstandard (def. 2).

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28.

authorized or approved: The program was broadcast on the standard broadcast band.

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Standards is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

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Origin:
1125–75; Middle English < Old French, probably < Frankish *standord (compare German Standort standing-point), conformed to -ard -ard

Related forms

pre·stand·ard, noun, adjective

su·per·stand·ard, noun, adjective

un·stand·ard, adjective

Synonyms
1, 3. gauge, basis, pattern, guide. Standard, criterion refer to the basis for making a judgment. A standard is an authoritative principle or rule that usually implies a model or pattern for guidance, by comparison with which the quantity, excellence, correctness, etc., of other things may be determined: She could serve as the standard of good breeding. A criterion is a rule or principle used to judge the value, suitability, probability, etc., of something, without necessarily implying any comparison: Wealth is no criterion of a person's worth.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To standards

Example Sentences

The school standards movement is being undermined by a failure of political will.

Strict standards must be introduced and all for-profits held accountable for adhering to them.

Then there is the issue of accounting standards themselves.

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The school standards movement is being undermined by a failure of political will.

Strict standards must be introduced and all for-profits held accountable for adhering to them.

Then there is the issue of accounting standards themselves.

Organic standards forbid the continuous confinement of beef cattle on feedlots.

California and other states that want to set stricter tailpipe emissions and fuel-efficiency standards may get their chance.

What a wonderful time for the women of the war era, they set the standards and paved the path for many of today.

Semidwarf pears are about half the size of standards.

Netscape not only pledges, it guarantees that it's committed to open technology standards.

There are existing standards for default rates in the federal student loan program.

But over time productivity is essential to improving living standards.

It's not huge money by anyone's standards to save an entire species.

If the standards have reduced the number of blackouts, the evidence has yet to bear it out.

AP reporters are expected to be wherever news is happening, and the standards are high.

Each organization lists plants meeting stringent performance standards.

The mobile phone giants plan to create technical standards for wireless games.

Most high-school teachers think their state standards successfully prepare students for college, but college instructors disagree.

Many people don't realize that authorities rely on guesswork to develop these standards.

Tame stuff by today's standards but novel enough, back then, to gain notice.

Industry standards call for all of a pond's water to be recirculated every two hours.

Senate debate over automobile fuel standards boils down to dueling statistics and, of course, politics.

Aquaculture can maintain living standards while averting the ruin of the oceans.

Standards changed after a generation grew up watching movies on television rather than in theaters.

Most feature drooping falls and erect to flaring standards.

WiGig joins a fray of wireless standards that are fighting to free consumers from being tethered to their devices.

Ever since, the state's science standards have been the subject of heated debate and international ridicule.

Dwarf or miniature florists' cyclamens are replicas of standards with half- or three-quarter-size leaves and blossoms.

The companies are required to obtain third-party audits to certify that they adhere to the standards.

Private wells are not subject to federal standards because there are tens of millions of them, which would make it unenforceable.

The web's standards body makes recommendations for software developers so all of the pieces of the web can work together.

These are injectibles with extremely strict manufacturing standards.

Testing standards created by the government are supposed to prevent bad voting systems from being used in elections.

But although everyone agrees that punch cards must go, so far no one can agree on standards for the systems to replace them.

Detroit automakers and the unions they usually tussle with came together for once to rail against tighter fuel economy standards.

Apple has set itself up as a potential lightning rod on global labor standards.

The result is an ongoing historical record of the evolution of internet standards.

US accounting standards have become unusually complex and vulnerable to subjective interpretation.

Evolving standards may change the way colleges plan online-learning offerings.

Norway has one of the lowest unemployment rates and one of the highest standards of living in the world.

But until recently, their engines were held to much lower efficiency standards than.

The movement for uniform and higher standards of admission to college has been.

There are big variations in educational standards between countries.

New fuel-efficiency standards have also been enacted.

Test-driven standards don't help children, and making them national is no guarantee of educational quality.

Clearly, the absence of strict standards in the medical profession would be a threat to public health.

The federal agency will issue fracking wastewater rules to strengthen state-level standards.

Marco, going instead at night to dance almost alone to standards played by tuxedoed string quartets.

Monaco is the latest country to adopt international standards for banking openness and information-sharing.

We edit all opinion pieces before they are published so that they conform to our editorial style and standards of readability.

Nonetheless, it has also proven useful as a gauge of an economy's capacity to improve living standards.

National renewable standards and offshore drilling still in question, however.

In other words, the standards for diagnosing autism have increased.

The biofuel meets the same standards as normal jet fuel, and it can be used without any modifications to the airplane.

Government standards on fluorescent bulbs will promote innovation and help the economy.

New standards guide a search for students who have leadership potential and think independently.

But there is a stronger argument than the difficulty of maintaining high standards in a dodgy industry:.

One obvious improvement would be to raise car mileage standards.

He was a man of towering standards with cool disdain for the.

Toughen academic standards for incoming athletes, both from high school and community colleges.

Income is needed to raise standards of living and create incentives for local people to conserve the fragile natural environment.

But you may also have loftier goals or higher standards.

The notion of a decline in standards draws crusaders.

Rising living standards are fine in themselves, but the.

Even some of the centuries-old standards have benefited from the enhanced computer processing power.

Monitor and enforce database connectivity standards.

Some regional accrediting agencies have relaxed their standards for faculty credentials at two-year.

Applying modern standards to conduct long ago is tricky.

But right now there's no technology out there that meets the standards that we've set.

Admissions policies and performance standards for doctoral.

It lacks a set of standards and practices that is common throughout the world.

Not only do your standards go up, but so do the techniques you can use.

Japanese citizens possess high, complex standards when it comes to cellphones.

The aim is to inform and encourage choice, which in theory will raise standards.

Protocols are communication standards that allow computers to speak to one another over a network.

But cellphone radiation standards set by the government remains the same for both groups.

The emergency has heightened anxiety about public health in a region where standards are bent by the local mafia.

But cloud computing is still in its infancy, and setting standards too early could hamper innovation.

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

standard

mid-12c., "flag or other conspicuous object to serve as a rallying point for a military force," from O.Fr. estandart, probably from Frank. *standhard, lit. "stand fast or firm," a compound of words similar to Gothic standan "to stand" (see stand) and hardus "hard" (see

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hard). So called because the flag was fixed to a pole or spear and stuck in the ground to stand upright. The other theory connects the O.Fr. word to estendre "to stretch out," from L. extendere (see extend). Meaning "unit of measure" is early 14c., from Anglo-Fr., where it was used 13c., and is perhaps metaphoric, the royal standard coming to stand for royal authority in matters like setting weights and measures. Hence the meaning "authoritative or recognized exemplar of quality or correctness" (late 15c.). Meaning "rule, principal or means of judgment" is from 1560s. That of "definite level of attainment" is attested from 1711 (e.g. standard of living, 1903). Some senses (e.g. "upright pole," mid-15c.) seem to be influenced by stand (v.). Standardize is recorded from 1873. Standard-bearer in the figurative sense is from 1560s.

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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

standard stan·dard (stān'dərd)
n.

An acknowledged measure of comparison for quantitative or qualitative value; a criterion.
An object that under specified conditions defines, represents, or records the magnitude of a unit.

adj.

Serving as or conforming to a standard of measurement or value.
Widely recognized as a model of authority or excellence.

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Matching Quote

"Every reader of the French or German papers knows that not a day passes without producing some uneasy discussion of supposed social decrepitude;Mfalling off of the birthrate;Mdecline of rural population;Mlowering of army standards;Mmultiplication of suicides;Mincrease of insanity or idiocy,—of cancer,—of tuberculosis;Msigns of nervous exhaustion,—of enfeebled vitality,—"habits" of alcoholism and drugs,—failure of eyesight in the young,—and so on, without end."

-Henry Brooks Adams

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