touchstone

noun touch·stone \ ˈtəch-ˌstōn \

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

Definition of touchstone

1 : a fundamental or quintessential part or feature : basis

a touchstone film of that decade

now considered a touchstone of the city's life
—Michael Specter

2 : a test or criterion for determining the quality or genuineness of a thing

3 : a black siliceous stone related to flint and formerly used to test the purity of gold and silver by the streak left on the stone when rubbed by the metal

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Examples of touchstone in a Sentence

Good service is one touchstone of a first-class restaurant.
his book has long been a touchstone for travel writing that aspires to be literature

Recent Examples of touchstone from the Web

It was based on Ken Kesey’s novel, a touchstone of the 1960s counterculture, about a rebellious gadfly’s efforts to survive inside a prisonlike mental hospital.

— matt schudel, Washington Post, "Milos Forman, Oscar-winning director of ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Amadeus’ dies at 86," 14 Apr. 2018
Indian brides have long created ornate floral headpieces for their weddings, while women in dozens of other countries use hair flowers as a cultural touchstone.

— jenna rosenstein, Harper's BAZAAR, "Death to Flower Crowns. These Are The New Ways To Wear Hair Flowers.," 12 Apr. 2018
Buy Photo One date, more than any other, has been a touchstone for Rabbi Arthur Waskow.

— kristin e. holmes, Philly.com, "From Philly rabbi, a new Freedom Seder for a divided nation," 27 Mar. 2018
Indeed, the touchstones of the debate are a series of place names.

— joseph blocher, Vox, "A gun debate compromise: let cities and rural areas pass different laws," 24 Mar. 2018
Meanwhile, the image of blood-red paint being thrown on fur coats is a cultural touchstone of radical anti-fur activism.

— tony bravo, San Francisco Chronicle, "SF’s fashion crowd speaks out on whether fur is friend or faux," 22 Mar. 2018
The Watch House is a cultural touchstone for First Nations communities that in aboriginal times would build a structure from which to keep watch for enemies, said Will George, a Tsleil-Waututh Nation member and spokesman for Protect the Inlet.

— lynda v. mapes, The Seattle Times, "Anti-pipeline demonstrations begin in Vancouver after court order to keep protesters at bay," 10 Mar. 2018
The incandescent Revueltas suite, derived from one of his film scores, is a touchstone of the Mexican repertoire; pairing it with Mr. Glass’s tribute to Rocinha, a Rio de Janeiro favela, gives the program a vaguely Latin American theme.

— seth colter walls, New York Times, "Review: Philip Glass Is Celebrated, but Not With His Best," 28 Feb. 2018
Each was a triumph, and they still are recognized as such, icons of a genre, touchstones of both anthropology and film.

— sean flynn, Smithsonian, "The Reckoning," 23 Feb. 2018

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

Did You Know?

Our example sentence uses "touchstone" in its most recently acquired sense: "a fundamental part." The earlier sense, "a criterion for quality" (as in "I Love Lucy is often seen as a touchstone for comparison with today's TV comedy shows"), provides a better clue to the original meaning of "touchstone," however. The "criterion" sense, which goes back more than 470 years, alludes to a method of testing the purity of a sample of gold. The sample was rubbed on a piece of dark quartz or jasper - the "touchstone." The mark it made was compared to adjacent rubbings on the touchstone from gold of known purity. This method has proved accurate enough that touchstones are still used by jewelers today.

First Known Use of touchstone

1530

touchstone Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of touchstone

standard, criterion, gauge, yardstick, touchstone mean a means of determining what a thing should be. standard applies to any definite rule, principle, or measure established by authority.