criterion

Definition

A standard, test, or requirement by which individual things or people may be compared and judged; a gauge.

Etymology

From New Latin criterion, from Ancient Greek κριτήριον (kritḗrion, “a test, a means of judging”), from κριτής (kritḗs, “judge”), from κρίνω (krínō, “to judge”); see critic.

Example Sentences

• "Near-synonym: benchmark"
• "criterion of choice, of decision, of selection"
• "Knowledge has come to her too soon—knowledge of evil, unqualified by the general charities which longer experience infallibly brings; but her age has lent its own freshness to this first great emotion; it becomes unconsciously a criterion, and the judgment is harsh, because the remembrance is bitter."

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