benchmark
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English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From bench + mark. Originally (attested circa 1842) a mark cut into a stone by land surveyors to secure a "bench" (from 19th century land surveying jargon, meaning a type of bracket), to mount measuring equipment. Figurative sense attested circa 1884.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]benchmark (plural benchmarks)
- A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.
- Near-synonym: criterion
- 2013 September 20, Marina Hyde, The Guardian[1]:
- Is the pope Catholic? Forgive the posing of a question that is usually rhetorical, the absolute benchmark of certainty, and traditionally regarded as even more settled than the one pertaining to the lavatorial arrangements of bears.
- A surveyor's mark made on some stationary object and shown on a map; used as a reference point.
- Near-synonym: datum
- (computing) A computer program that is executed to assess the performance of the runtime environment.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]standard
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surveyor's mark
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computing: program executed to assess performance
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Verb
[edit]benchmark (third-person singular simple present benchmarks, present participle benchmarking, simple past and past participle benchmarked)
- (transitive) To measure the performance or quality of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.
- (intransitive, followed by at) To give certain results in a benchmark test.
- (transitive, intransitive, followed by against) To use something (e.g., a competitor's product) as a standard to improve one's own thing.