gold standard

noun

1

: a monetary standard under which the basic unit of currency is defined by a stated quantity of gold and which is usually characterized by the coinage and circulation of gold, unrestricted convertibility of other money into gold, and the free export and import of gold for settling of international obligations

2

: benchmark sense 1a

Synonyms of gold standard

• standard
• criterion
• benchmark

Examples of gold standard in a Sentence

the gold standard for accurate experimental procedures is the double-blind medication trial

Recent Examples on the Web

Montana is kind of a gold standard in terms of river access. — Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 10 June 2026

For most of those 20 years, Tesco’s Dunnhumby was the analytics gold standard. — Aneesh Reddy, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026

Red Rocks remains the industry’s gold standard for outdoor amphitheaters. — Jonathan Cohen, SPIN, 13 June 2026

However, Stewart, 31, still sets a gold standard for winning games, big, small, beautiful or, well, like this one. — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 9 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1811, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for gold standard

• meandered
• nonstandard
• substandard
• slandered