gold standards
Ideals to meet
A gold standard is the premier example or benchmark against which others are measured: Randomized controlled trials remain the gold standard in medical research.
The phrase comes from monetary systems where currency was backed by gold reserves.
Now used broadly for any authoritative measure of quality or correctness: Her performance set the gold standard for the role.
- apexUppermost point or culmination
- exampleRepresentative case shown
- benchmarkStandard for comparison
- yardstickThirty-six-inch ruler
- measuring stickGraduated tool for length
paradigm · criteria · hallmarking · ideal · norms · touchstone · reliability · certification · rules · measure · instances · cases · baseline · monetary systems · reserve currency · gauge · metric · economic history
- Exemplarsexemplars, paragons, role models, ideals, benchmarks
- assayinghallmarking, hallmarks, touchstone, scratch test, acid test
gold standardslowest common denominators
Smallest shared divisors of fractions
bottom of the barrel · rock bottom · floor · nadir · mediocrity
gold standardsloose guidelines
guidelines · recommendations · rules of thumb · hunches · preferences
gold standardsguesswork
Conclusions drawn without proof
eyeballing · anecdotal evidence · heuristics · rules of thumb
gold, standard, golden, gilded, gilding, standards, standardize, standardized, standardization