| Noun | 1. | touchstone - a basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can be evaluated; "the schools comply with federal standards"; "they set the measure for all subsequent work" benchmark - a standard by which something can be measured or judged; "his painting sets the benchmark of quality" earned run average, ERA - (baseball) a measure of a pitcher's effectiveness; calculated as the average number of earned runs allowed by the pitcher for every nine innings pitched GPA, grade point average - a measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted procrustean bed, procrustean rule, procrustean standard - a standard that is enforced uniformly without regard to individuality yardstick - a measure or standard used for comparison; "on what kind of yardstick is he basing his judgment?" medium of exchange, monetary system - anything that is generally accepted as a standard of value and a measure of wealth in a particular country or region system of measurement, metric - a system of related measures that facilitates the quantification of some particular characteristic graduated table, ordered series, scale, scale of measurement - an ordered reference standard; "judging on a scale of 1 to 10" standard of measurement, gauge - accepted or approved instance or example of a quantity or quality against which others are judged or measured or compared baseline - an imaginary line or standard by which things are measured or compared; "the established a baseline for the budget" norm - a standard or model or pattern regarded as typical; "the current middle-class norm of two children per family" |