English
standard
see also: Standard
Etymology

From Middle English standard, from Old French estandart, from Frankish *standahard, equivalent to .

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈstændəd/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈstændəɹd/, [ˈsteəndɚd]
Adjective

standard

  1. Falling within an accepted range of size, amount, power, quality, etc.
  2. (of a tree or shrub) Growing alone as a free-standing plant; not trained on a post etc.
    • 1863, Anthony Trollope, Rachel Ray:
      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.
    standard works in history; standard authors
  4. Of a usable or serviceable grade or quality.
  5. (not comparable, of a motor vehicle) Having a manual transmission.
  6. As normally supplied (not optional).
  7. (linguistics) Conforming to the standard variety.
Antonyms Translations Translations Noun

standard (plural standards)

  1. A principle or example or measure used for comparison.
    1. A level of quality or attainment.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
        The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.
    2. Something used as a measure for comparative evaluations; a model.
      • 1712, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal For Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue:
        the court, which used to be the standard of propriety and correctness of speech
      • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC ↗:
        A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
    3. A musical work of established popularity.
    4. A rule or set of rules or requirements which are widely agreed upon or imposed by government.
    5. The proportion of weights of fine metal and alloy established for coinage.
      • 1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations:
        By the present standard of the coinage, sixty-two shillings is coined out of one pound weight of silver.
    6. (sociolinguistics) standard idiom, a prestigious or standardized language variety; standard language
    7. A bottle of wine containing 0.750 liters of fluid.
    8. (India) Grade level in primary education.
      I am in fifth standard.
  2. A vertical pole with something at its apex.
    1. An object supported in an upright position, such as a lamp standard.
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
        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.
    2. The flag or ensign carried by a military unit.
      • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC ↗:
        His armies, in the following day, / On those fair plains their standards proud display.
    3. One of the upright members that supports the horizontal axis of a transit or theodolite.
    4. Any upright support, such as one of the poles of a scaffold.
    5. A sturdy, woody plant whose upright stem is used to graft a less hardy ornamental flowering plant on, rather then actually planting it.
    6. A tree of natural size supported by its own stem, and not dwarfed by grafting on the stock of a smaller species nor trained upon a wall or trellis.
      • 1685, William Temple, Miscellanea. The Second Part. […], London: […] T. M. for Ri[chard] and Ra[lph] Simpson, […], published 1690, →OCLC ↗, [https:// page 111]:
        In the more temperate parts of France [gardens are] part laid out for Flowers, others for Fruits, ſome Standards, ſome againſt Walls or Paliſades, [...]
    7. The sheth of a plough.
  3. A manual transmission vehicle.
  4. (botany) The upper petal or banner of a papilionaceous corolla.
  5. (shipbuilding) An inverted knee timber placed upon the deck instead of beneath it, with its vertical branch turned upward from that which lies horizontally.
  6. A large drinking cup.
  7. (historical) A collar of mail protecting the neck.
    Synonyms: pisane
    • 1903, The Archaeological Journal, page 104:
      The scales generally showed on the face of the garment or defence, and we find body armour, gorgets, habergeons, standards or neck defences, and even the camailt of this class of armour.
    • 1992, Matthias Pfaffenbichler, British Museum, Armourers:
      Goldsmiths also made gold and silver mail for the decorations of helmets and gorgets. The will of Duke Philip the Good shows that he owned a mail standard (collar) made of solid gold.
  8. Short for standard poodle.
    • 1968, Jeff Griffen, The Poodle Book, page 36:
      Since standards are large dogs, they grow much more rapidly than miniatures and toys, which means that they require more supplements.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Interjection
  1. (UK, slang) An expression of agreement.
Standard
Proper noun
  1. (scifi, fantasy) Denoting the name of a universal language in various works.
    Synonyms: Common


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005
Offline English dictionary