Criterion
//kɹɪˈtɪəɹi.ən// noun
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A standard, test, or requirement by which individual things or people may be compared and judged; a gauge.
"Near-synonym: benchmark"
- 2 the ideal in terms of which something can be judged wordnet
- 3 a basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can be evaluated wordnet
Example
More examples"What criterion did you use when you elected this essay as the winner?"
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.
Related phrases
More for "criterion"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.