common measure

Definition of common measure

: a meter consisting chiefly of iambic lines of 7 accents each arranged in rhymed pairs usually printed in 4-line stanzas

— called also common meter

Examples of common measure in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The most common measure for the health of a pension fund is its funding percentage. — Scott Burns, Dallas News, "Scott Burns: Ranking Texas’ most underfunded public pension funds," 10 Aug. 2020 The company has a price-to-earnings ratio—a common measure of how expensive a stock is— of about 21, which could signal a buying opportunity considering that its much-smaller rival, JD.com, has a price-to-earnings ratio of 34. — Robert Hackett, Fortune, "Coronavirus may not be all bad for tech. Consider the ‘stay at home’ stocks," 10 Mar. 2020 But to the brothers’ dismay Hippasus proved that the side of a square has no common measure with its diagonal, and consequently some magnitudes—known as irrational numbers—cannot... — Amir Alexander, WSJ, "‘The Universe Speaks in Numbers’ Review: The Inner Observatory," 7 June 2019 The most common measure of empathy, a questionnaire, has been completed by hundreds of thousands of people since the late 1970s. — K.n.c., The Economist, "How to increase empathy and unite society," 7 June 2019 The most common measure of yield curve steepness is the difference between two-year and 10-year yields. — Jon Sindreu, WSJ, "Inverted Yield Curves Aren’t a Crystal Ball," 4 Dec. 2018 Its total net debt was about $1.40 billion on Oct. 31, or about two times Vail’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a common measure of how much cash a company makes from operations. — Ezequiel Minaya, WSJ, "Vail Expansion Plan Goes Aggressive and Wipes Out," 11 Dec. 2018 Months of supply is a common measure of housing inventory. — Jeff Andrews, Curbed, "Is the housing market starting to cool off?," 2 Aug. 2018 But, adjusted for one common measure of inflation, the $100,000 original cost would instead be about $197,000 today. — Richard Rubin, WSJ, "Treasury Chief Calls Changing Capital-Gains Rule a Job for Congress First," 29 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'common measure.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Common measure.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/common%20measure. Accessed 29 Oct. 2020.

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