Standardization

How to spell standardization

15 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce standardization

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does standardization mean?

1. nounThe process of making things conform to a single agreed norm, measure, or specification.

Standardization in a sentence

• The committee pushed for the standardization of safety procedures across all branches.

• Standardization of parts let the factory swap components between models without delay.

Where does standardization come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'standard', which English took from Old French 'estandart', a battle flag or rallying banner that troops gathered around; that French word itself probably blended the Frankish root behind 'stand' with the Latin 'extendere', meaning 'to stretch out'. Over the centuries the flag sense shifted toward the idea of an agreed measure or model, since a king's official banner came to represent an authoritative benchmark for weights and coinage. From that noun English formed the verb 'standardize', recorded from the nineteenth century, meaning to make things conform to a single agreed pattern. Adding the Latin-derived '-ation' ending produced 'standardization', the abstract noun for the act or process of imposing uniformity. The spelling trap lives in the long unstressed middle: the schwa vowels in 'stand-ard-i-za-tion' give few clues to the 'a', 'a', 'i' sequence, and writers must also choose between the 'z' and the British '-isation' variant.

How the word is built

• standard (a fixed norm or measure)
• -ize (verb suffix: to make)
• -ation (noun suffix: the act or result)

British and American spelling

Standardization is the American spelling. British English spells it standardisation.