standard
Forms
- Superlative
- most standard
- Plural
- standards
Definitions
1.Falling within an accepted range of size, amount, power, quality, etc.
2.Growing alone as a free-standing plant; not trained on a post etc.
- There are women who cannot grow alone as standard trees;, for whom the support and warmth of some wall, some paling, some post, is absolutely necessary […].
3.Having recognized excellence or authority.
4.Of a usable or serviceable grade or quality.
1.A principle or example or measure used for comparison.
- I finished my twelfth standard with less than stellar marks.
- By the present standard of the coinage, sixty-two shillings is coined out of one pound weight of silver.
- A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
2.A vertical pole with something at its apex.
- It [Loranthus europaeus] grows chiefly on the branches of standards over coppice.
- His armies, in the following day, / On those fair plains their standards proud display.
- It was called the wickedest street in London and the entrance was just here. I imagine the mouth of the road lay between this lamp standard and the second from the next down there.
3.a cairn or tumulus
4.A manual transmission vehicle.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #892
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Word family
Etymology
From Middle English standard, from Old French estandart (“gathering place, battle flag”), from Frankish *standahard (literally “stand firm, stand hard”), equivalent to stand + -ard. An alternative etymology derives the second element from Frankish *oʀd (“point, spot, place”) (compare Old French ordé (“pointed”), Old English ord (“point, source, vanguard”), German Standort (“location, place, site, position, base”, literally “standing-point”)). Merged with Middle English standar, stander, standere (“flag, banner”, literally “stander”), equivalent to stand + -er. More at stand, hard, ord.