as in standards
something set up as an example against which others of the same type are compared
his book has long been a touchstone for travel writing that aspires to be literature
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Recent Examples of touchstones
Bush's comments became cultural touchstones for government failure, widely mocked and criticized.
—
Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
The timeline is assembled in such a way that emotional touchstones can sometimes feel manipulative, considering how ruthlessly unsentimental Bobo’s narration sounds.
—Peter Debruge, Variety, 23 Aug. 2025
In between questions about Nineties cultural touchstones like Friends, Space Jam, Beavis and Butthead, the Spice Girls, and Sir-Mix-A-Lot — during which Kravitz racks up a lot of points and Butler downs a lot of shots — the pair also discusses working on Caught Stealing.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 20 Aug. 2025
In the context of Ocean’s Godori’s futuristic Korean milieu, there are plenty of Korean cultural touchstones.
—Elaine U. Cho
august 5, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2025
Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
The timeline is assembled in such a way that emotional touchstones can sometimes feel manipulative, considering how ruthlessly unsentimental Bobo’s narration sounds.
—Peter Debruge, Variety, 23 Aug. 2025
In between questions about Nineties cultural touchstones like Friends, Space Jam, Beavis and Butthead, the Spice Girls, and Sir-Mix-A-Lot — during which Kravitz racks up a lot of points and Butler downs a lot of shots — the pair also discusses working on Caught Stealing.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 20 Aug. 2025
In the context of Ocean’s Godori’s futuristic Korean milieu, there are plenty of Korean cultural touchstones.
—Elaine U. Cho
august 5, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for touchstones
Noun
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The advent of short-form cricket has seen fielding standards rise rapidly in the past decade.—
James Wallace,
New York Times,
5 Sep. 2025
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The standards for staffing levels are based on federal regulations from the Office of Personnel Management.—
Natalie Eilbert,
jsonline.com,
4 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Although the recognition of other countries is also a key component of obtaining statehood, any Palestinian state established today would not meet the minimal criteria, according to Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute.—
Michele Chabin,
The Washington Examiner,
5 Sep. 2025
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Bondi also instructed the board to reinstate the previous criteria that Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued in a 2018 case referred to as Matter of A-B-, per WSJ.—
Madison E. Goldberg,
PEOPLE,
5 Sep. 2025
Noun
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OpenAI also says there is a 45 percent to 65 percent reduction in factual errors over GPT-4, depending on the setting, as well as substantial gains in handling medical and coding tasks on industry-standard benchmarks.—
Shane Croucher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
3 Sep. 2025
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Carbonfact, an environmental data platform for the apparel and footwear industry, just shared the first free solution that lets brands calculate their official French Environmental Cost—and compare it, instantly, to industry benchmarks.—
Alexandra Harrell,
Sourcing Journal,
3 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Touchstones.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/touchstones. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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