1A level of quality or attainment.

1. 1.1 A required or agreed level of quality or attainment.
   half of the beaches fail to comply with European standards

   mass noun their tap water was not up to standard

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It is likely that the sanitation system will not be maintained to required standards.
   • Another feature of this bill is the implicit incentive to maintain a required level of safety standards.
   • The new FAA rules would ensure that any facility doing repairs on U.S. aircraft meets minimum safety standards.
   • A breach of duty defined by failure to exercise the required standard of care must have occurred.
   • The Clean Sports Act establishes strict, uniform standards for the prohibition of performance-enhancing drugs including steroids and amphetamines.
   • All areas of learning were marked good quality and met the standards required.
   • But so far, efforts to impose more rigorous academic standards on voucher schools have failed.
   • The potatoes will also have to meet minimum quality standards such as appearance and freedom from defects and plant diseases.
   • The new main entrance and shopping facilities will of course meet all the required fire safety standards.
   • These are consequences when directors fail to carry out required responsibilities with the required standards of conduct.
   • We expect hospitals to enforce strict standards of hygiene and cleanliness.
   • What kind of environmental protection standards will raise the overall quality of life for the people?
   • Modern safety standards require shatterproof glass, which won't smash into sharp shards - but older furniture may well have plain glass.
   • They choose to flout the safety and environmental standards required by the licensing system and observed by the great majority of the industry.
   • All currently manufactured vented gas heaters are required by industry safety standards to have a safety shut-off device.
   • "These vehicles have to be built to very sturdy and stringent standards.
   • One thing we would ask is for funding to be provided to maintain the new facilities to the required standard.
   • New national air-quality standards which require regional councils to reduce air pollution come into effect today.
   • They are attempting to maintain a standard of safety by eliminating any potential dangers that cause people harm.
   • These goggles meet the applicable safety standards and requirements.

   Synonyms

   guideline, norm, yardstick, benchmark, gauge, measure, criterion, guide, touchstone, model, pattern, example, exemplar, paradigm, ideal, archetype, specification, requirement, rule, principle, law, canon
2. 1.2British historical (in elementary schools) a grade of proficiency tested by examination or the form or class preparing pupils for such a grade.
   she was still in boarding school and had twice repeated the same standard

   Example sentencesExamples

   • We are not children to be promoted from standard to standard until we pass our graduation either in Arts or Law.
   • All seven of the top Standard Nine students at Crestway chose to repeat the standard in 1986.

2Something used as a measure, norm, or model in comparative evaluations.

1. 2.1standards Principles of conduct informed by notions of honour and decency.
   a decline in moral standards

   Example sentencesExamples

   • And this Government is going to set standards of integrity and conduct!
   • Many religious doctrines or beliefs dictate standards of social conduct and responsibility, and require believers to act accordingly.
   • The college is still bashful about articulating explicitly Christian standards of moral conduct.
   • I guess we have different standards of decency over here.
   • We provided the only significant support for the war and were in a position to insist on certain safeguards and standards of conduct.
   • Scotland's largest local authority wants to introduce behavioural contracts setting out minimum standards of conduct for pupils.
   • It would be wrong to try to force people to adhere to ways to living preferred by the rest of us, but there is nothing wrong with insisting on them conforming to standards of decency and the laws of the land.
   • But he has steadfastly refused to lower his high standards of morality and decency.
   • It has been a bad week for those of us who believe that people in positions of power and influence are governed by the same standards of decency and integrity with which we conduct our own lives.
   • Society is creating an underclass without standards, principles or decency, but nobody seems to recognise this, let alone be doing anything about it.
   • Victory implies doing what is right; doing what is right implies morality; morality implies standards of conduct.
   • Voluntary standards of campaign conduct should be worked out through a flexible process of negotiation.
   • MPs should be fined for breaching their code of conduct, Whitehall's standards watchdog said yesterday.
   • He is in charge of maintaining Hutterite culture such as dress, behavior, and standards of conduct.
   • Please let us all strengthen the values of high moral standards, decency and caring before it is too late.
   • Objectively, his standards of conduct regarding financial matters are well below those of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
   • Her belief that standards and decency were important brought her into conflict with some of the accepted norms of her day.
   • He had, according to the City regulators, breached its principles and its high standards of integrity and fair dealing.
   • Yet, for the sake of humanity, universal agreement and adoption of minimum standards in morality and justice must be striven towards.
   • What constitutes an infringement of privacy or bad taste or a failure to conform to proper standards of decency is very much a matter of personal judgment.

   Synonyms

   principle, rule of living

   (standards), code of behaviour, code of honour, morals, scruples, ethics, ideals
2. 2.2 A form of language that is widely accepted as the usual form.
   the idea of the standard is projected backwards on to states of language

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It was one variety of the language of London also which, from the 15th century onwards, acquired the status of a standard spoken language.
   • The development of common language standards is always a difficult, lengthy process.
   • Or, if you prefer, we could discuss language standards, pronunciation norms and so on.
   • Taiwanese students can and should learn the accepted Romanization standards for any languages they use regularly.
   • As a consequence, many native speakers of a dialect may learn the standard as a secondary variety of their own language.
   • The missionaries chose the Wemo dialect as the standard for the Kâte language in 1892.
   • Missionaries to the islands chose this dialect as their standard for translation of the Bible.
3. 2.3 The prescribed weight of fine metal in gold or silver coins.
   the sterling standard for silver

   Example sentencesExamples

   • One of the company's most important functions, then as now, is marking gold and silver to a certain standard.
   • The jewellers in the recent past had started advertising the purity standards of the gold they use in their jewellery.
4. 2.4 A system by which the value of a currency is defined in terms of gold or silver or both.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Gold and silver vessels served in effect as large denomination banknotes, and weighed round figures in terms of the prevailing currency standards.
   • For a time during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries gold provided a universal standard of value.
   • The world is moving toward a system that regards gold as the standard of all economic value.
   • The guinea became established as a standard of gold weight in India.
5. 2.5 A measure for timber, equivalent to 165 cu. ft (4.67 cubic metres).
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The vessel contained about 1000 standards... A standard was 165 cubic feet of timber.

3(especially with reference to jazz or blues) a tune or song of established popularity.

4A military or ceremonial flag carried on a pole or hoisted on a rope.

1. 4.1 Used in names of newspapers.
   a report in the Evening Standard

   Example sentencesExamples

   • In 1992, Mr Stant won the Standard's Man of the Year award.
   • Here's what the Standard said, and the Independent.
   • Lets look at the truth of the Weekly Standard article.
   • Megat Junid told The Standard that Usmea was founded after talks with Edwin Feulner three years ago.
   • The man, named in London's Evening Standard as Yusef Azad, 39, was arrested at his home in Brixton.
   • Daai Tou Laam summarizes the news in the Standard and the South China Morning Post.
   • None is the video equivalent of The Nation or The Weekly Standard.
   • The Evening Standard's Editor is Veronica Wadley.
   • Would free still be too much to pay for The Standard?
   • Don't miss Stephen Hayes's brick-by-brick disassembly of the Evil Weasel in The Weekly Standard.
   • On Sunday, Richmond beat Saffron Walden in the Evening Standard Trophy.
   • Anyone reckon the Mail, the Times and the Standard will do the same?
   • He joined the Aberdeen Evening Express from the Dumfries and Galloway Standard in 1978.
   • It goes without say that you can't find any such in the South China Morning Post or The Standard.
   • Bill Kristol and Gary Schmitt touched on it in a piece in the Standard on Tuesday.
   • One morning, Peter Mandelson rang me at the Evening Standard.
   • Please don't miss this piece by Reuel Marc Gerecht in the Weekly Standard.
   • It hasn't even been reviewed in National Review or The Weekly Standard.
   • Attempts by The Standard to reach Stanley Ho were unsuccessful.
   • Have you seen an article by Matt Labash in the November 24, 1997 issue of The Weekly Standard?

5A tree or shrub that grows on an erect stem of full height.

1. 5.1 A shrub grafted on an erect stem and trained in tree form.
   as modifier a standard rose

   Example sentencesExamples

   • On Talkback Gardening, local rose expert, Dean Stringer, explained the finer points of pruning a bush rose and a standard.
   • Pineapple Beauty, which has yellow-green leaves that turn gold, is one of the taller varieties and can be trained as a standard.
   • She trains this fast-growing shrub as a standard, sending the blooms up rather than out.
   • They can be used as specimen plants and pruned to grow into standards either for pots or in the garden or grown as multi-stemmed shrubs with annual, hard pruning.
   • Bay is often trained into standards and pyramids and makes a good focal point in a herb garden.
   • An alternative is to overwinter these standards in a greenhouse.
2. 5.2Botany The large, frequently erect uppermost petal of a papilionaceous flower.
   Also called vexillum

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Lathyrus hirsutus..Flowers in.; standard crimson
   • Papilionaceous describes a corolla having a standard, wings, and keel, as in the peculiar corolla of many Leguminosae.
3. 5.3Botany One of the inner petals of an iris flower, frequently erect.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Rather than 3 standards, falls, etc, Iris with this factor have 4 standards, 4, beards, 4 falls, and 4 stylearms.
   • The 3 upright petals are called standards; the 3 that hang down are called falls.

6An upright water or gas pipe.

1Used or accepted as normal or average.

1. 1.1 (of a size, measure, design, etc.) regularly used or produced; not special or exceptional.
   all these doors come in a range of standard sizes

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Shopping from catalogues can also be a nightmare as the standard size 14 might be too small, too big or catch you in all the wrong places.
   • Together with the savings in space, such gains will eventually show up in the standard measures of output.
   • He introduced standard weights and measurements, revenue districts and officers.
   • BMI, a standard measure for obesity, is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.
   • Manchego cheeses are pressed in moulds of a standard design which were originally of plaited straw, leaving a characteristic pattern on the surface.
   • Base units and appliances come in standard sizes.
   • All were given standard sizes of wine and spirit glasses.
   • Off-site buildings will be constructed in the factory-controlled environment using standard designs and processes.
   • Batts are available in standard widths designed to match the cavities created by wall studs.
   • One way to reduce them is to keep everything in your plan to standard sizes.
   • The other difficulty in using architectural salvage is that it doesn't come in standard sizes, and your builders won't like that.
   • Just cover the front of a standard size postcard with drawings, colour, fabric, collage.
   • In the event though the coffin was just a standard size and the grave was much bigger than it needed to be.
   • The data are already being used to change standard sizes to give more room for larger stomachs, necks and upper arms.
   • Sewing machines brought mass-produced shoes in standard sizes and ready-to-wear clothes within universal reach.
   • Also included are new collections of art and design work published in standard sizes.
   • The standard measure of beer in UK pubs is about a pint, give or take head.
   • Bigger bags do make for a better brew but they would need to be about twice the standard size to make a difference.
   • The NCRS was brought in last year to provide a standard measure for recording crimes for all police forces.
   • They can be ordered in standard sizes or custom designed to fit any application.
2. 1.2 (of a work, repertoire, or writer) viewed as authoritative or of permanent value and so widely read or performed.
   his essays on the interpretation of reality became a standard text

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Her interpretations of the standard repertoire play it so safe that they hardly feel like play at all.
   • Orchestras will disappear, or exist only to play the standard repertoire of the previous centuries.
   • Of the three works here I believe it has the best chance of entering the standard repertoire.
   • He was a serious dance scholar and produced the standard works on Nijinsky and Diaghilev.
   • Abraham's work is almost all related to Maxwell's theory and he wrote a text which was the standard work on electrodynamics in Germany for a long time.
   • Many have become part of the standard repertoire and most deserve to be recognized as among the best works in the last century.
   • Salvatore's study is both rich and deep, and promises to become the standard work on rural Argentina in the mid-century.
   • Latter-day Saints accept the Doctrine and Covenants as a book of scripture, one of their standard works.
   • His textbook Commentaries on the Surgery of War 1808-1815 was a standard work for decades.
   • Its methodological integrity and analytical scope will make it a standard work in the field for some time to come.
   • He followed that with Oracle of Geomancy and Terrestrial Astrology which has become the standard work on Western divinatory geomancy.
   • In 1888 a standard work, Argentine Ornithology, of which Hudson was part-author, appeared.
   • He was instrumental in defining the European musical canon, what we now think of as the standard repertoire, which he had most of by heart.
   • It's in the standard repertoire of rhetorical performance in English.
   • As such it should become a standard work in seminars on the subject.
   • I am sure that it will be a standard work in the field and particularly for the Andes for quite some time.
   • I imagine this will be the standard work on the subject for the foreseeable future.
   • For long the standard work of its subject, it was reprinted in 1967 with minor corrections by the author, and again in 1974.
   • Therefore our mission quickly became to generate new works for percussion while also bringing standard repertoire to a broad audience.
   • This series will present under-represented American orchestras in standard repertoire.

   Synonyms

   definitive, established, classic, recognized, approved, accepted, authoritative, most reliable, most complete, exhaustive, official
3. 1.3 Denoting or relating to the form of a language widely accepted as the usual correct form.
   speakers of standard English

   Example sentencesExamples

   • That language is now standard throughout the Arab world in the mass media and most literature.
   • So it's really odd to hear advice that redundancy in the formal written standard language should be increased.
   • But this Dutch was very rapidly developing away from the standard form of the language emerging at the time in Holland.
   • The emergence of standard languages, as well as literary forms, is intimately connected with socio-political context.
   • Barrie is keen to dispel the myth that regional dialects are somehow inferior to standard English.
   • It must be noted, however, that no sharp break exists between Trinidad English and standard English.
   • It evolved during the colonial era as the standard language of government and education.
   • I suspect the door to that will be prised open using standard English or Spanish.
   • Educated to speak and teach standard English, Collymore respected and encouraged the formal tradition.
   • The other language is standard English, which is the official language and the language of instruction.
   • She rightly says that being at ease in standard English is essential if you wish to communicate widely and easily with others.
   • Political factors have often caused one dialect to dominate an area and then become a more stable standard language.
   • Speakers of standard English can derive many of the same benefits.
   • The two standard languages are Tahitian and French, but many islanders have at least some English.
   • Radio and television impose the Cairo-spoken language as the standard dialect of Egypt.
   • Education was important in spreading English as a standard language.
   • ASCII is the standard language of Internet e-mail and newsgroup text, among other things.
   • In both these post-colonial countries, standard English remains a high status language.
   • At the age of 14, she began to write and dramatize poems using patois rather than standard English.
   • In the last two decades, there has been a thoroughgoing reconsideration of the idea of a standard language or dialect or variety.

2attributive (of a tree or shrub) growing on an erect stem of full height.

1. 2.1 (of a shrub) grafted on an erect stem and trained in tree form.
   standard roses

   Example sentencesExamples

   • They are hardier than standard roses and easy to grow, and they flower over a long period in a painter's palate of colors.
   • Dean with the way a standard rose should look after it has been pruned.
   • The standard rose - the centrepiece of the garden - was ripped up in the attack during the run up to Christmas.
   • Certain types of standard roses or pillars require special techniques.
   • A whole row of bamboo plants, worth £30 each, is already dead and so are hundreds of standard roses.
   • Also at risk this year will be newly-planted standard roses, which should be well staked.
   • Where they have standard roses, I have colourful wooden houses on totem poles.
   • If space in your yard is at a premium, the bushes can be trained to a standard form that can be tucked into virtually any garden area.
   • He used to grow standard roses in a tiny little front garden when we were living in Manchester.
   • The front garden, behind the privet, was clipped to within an inch of its life, with a single standard rose in the dead centre.