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Definition of "yardstick" []

  • A graduated measuring stick one yard in length. (noun)
  • A test or standard used in measurement, comparison, or judgment. See Synonyms at standard. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "yardstick" in a sentence
  • "I got involved because I think people shouldn't be denied access to opportunity based on criteria that have nothing to do with their abilities -- whether the yardstick is the color of their skin or the economic circumstances of their parents (or, of course, their gender)."
  • "I was responding to the statement that English speakers don't like Spanish speakers and trying to convey that Americans who judge everything by a certain yardstick just don't understand what they are seeing when they see illegals doing certain things."
  • "And the $7.2 million yardstick is short, too, because in many cases “those killed in Iraq were young men and women in peak physical condition, at the beginning of their working lives."