as in standards
something set up as an example against which others of the same type are compared
this essay will be the yardstick by which I grade the others
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Recent Examples of yardsticks
It is flanked on all sides by footlong rulers (emblazoned, like the yardsticks, with an assortment of penitent phrases including YES, SISTER and NO, SISTER) marking the hours.
—
Alex Jovanovich, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026
The gauge is based on short interest, margin debt, sentiment surveys and several other yardsticks used to gauge what investors are thinking and doing.
—Jeff Cox, CNBC, 17 Nov. 2025
In the matter of handmade placards—Magic Marker on cardboard, duct-taped to wooden yardsticks—there was a certain amount of politico-literary one-upmanship.
—Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2025
These are demographic, livability and financial yardsticks in which California sits amongst the top 10 states.
—Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 12 Sep. 2025
The machine learning field is moving fast, and the yardsticks used measure progress in it are having to race to keep up.
—Dina Genkina, IEEE Spectrum, 10 Sep. 2025
Traditional yardsticks like revenue and profit matter less than the company’s ETH stash.
—Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
Alex Jovanovich, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026
The gauge is based on short interest, margin debt, sentiment surveys and several other yardsticks used to gauge what investors are thinking and doing.
—Jeff Cox, CNBC, 17 Nov. 2025
In the matter of handmade placards—Magic Marker on cardboard, duct-taped to wooden yardsticks—there was a certain amount of politico-literary one-upmanship.
—Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2025
These are demographic, livability and financial yardsticks in which California sits amongst the top 10 states.
—Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 12 Sep. 2025
The machine learning field is moving fast, and the yardsticks used measure progress in it are having to race to keep up.
—Dina Genkina, IEEE Spectrum, 10 Sep. 2025
Traditional yardsticks like revenue and profit matter less than the company’s ETH stash.
—Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for yardsticks
Noun
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The state spent more than $20 billion without uniform standards to measure effectiveness.—
Julie Watts,
CBS News,
27 Jan. 2026
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In Hong Kong, this positions MKS to contribute to the HKPMCC’s governance and system design, ensuring interoperability with global standards.—
Sean Lee,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Trump made no secret of the most important criteria — a willingness to slash rates lower and keep them low.—
Jeff Cox,
CNBC,
30 Jan. 2026
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To protect against agents who intentionally overlook houses represented by low-fee agents, continue to use online search engines and broker websites to look for houses that meet your criteria.—
Lew Sichelman,
Miami Herald,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Markets such as silver and platinum are a fraction of the size of gold or major equity benchmarks like the S & P 500, meaning the recent influx of speculative capital is having an outsized impact on prices.—
Lee Ying Shan,
CNBC,
29 Jan. 2026
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On standard robotic manipulation benchmarks, Cosmos Policy achieved high success rates across multi-step tasks that require long-term reasoning.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
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For instance, growing network strength via metrics like active users and transaction volume tends to foster confidence in Bitcoin’s performance, which in turn supports demand and can stabilize price over time.—
Ethan Stone,
IndyStar,
30 Jan. 2026
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Doncic climbing in jersey sales Aside from viewership metrics in Slovenia, Doncic is seeing his popularity rise on another front.—
Eric Prisbell,
Dallas Morning News,
30 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Yardsticks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/yardsticks. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
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