Standards

How to spell standards

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce standards

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does standards mean?

1. nounAccepted levels of quality, achievement, or behaviour against which things or people are measured.
2. nounFlags or emblems carried as a rallying point, especially by a military unit or at a ceremony.

Standards in a sentence

• The factory must meet strict safety standards before reopening.

• Regimental standards were carried at the front of the parade.

• The new manager raised hygiene standards across every branch.

• The cathedral displayed the faded battle standards above the choir.

Where does standards come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the plural of 'standard', which English took from the Old French 'estandart', a word for a military flag or banner that armies gathered around as a rallying point. The origin of that French word is debated, but the most widely accepted view traces it to a Frankish compound meaning roughly 'stand firm' or 'stand hard', the idea being a banner planted in the ground that holds its position; some scholars instead link it to the Latin 'extendere', meaning 'to stretch out'. By the 1100s and 1200s the word had entered English, and from the original sense of a fixed, planted banner it naturally grew into the idea of a fixed point of reference: an official measure of weight, length, or quality that everyone could be judged against. From there came the modern sense of an agreed level of quality or a benchmark of behaviour. The link to the everyday verb 'stand' is exactly why the spelling keeps that whole word intact, with 'stand' simply followed by '-ard'.

How the word is built

• stand (to stand firm)
• -ard (noun suffix)
• -s (plural)