| 单词 | touchstone |
| 释义 | touchstone (once / 4696 pages) n Use the noun touchstone to describe a basis for comparison. For example, a filmmaker's touchstone might be her all-time favorite movie; she wants her movie to be that good or similar to it in some way. Touchstone as it is defined today comes from an actual stone. In the late 15th century, gold and silver was rubbed, or touched against black quartz — the touchstone — to determine the purity of the metals. This was done by looking at the color of the streaks left on the stone. This is why a touchstone, in the figurative sense as it is used today, is a measuring tool. WORD FAMILYtouchstone: touchstones USAGE EXAMPLESThe bench will serve as an aspirational touchstone in Woodland Terrace, Nixon said. Washington Post(Dec 30, 2016) It was the kind of cultural touchstone that happens only once in a generation, if that. BBC(Dec 30, 2016) Between “Formation” and “Insecure,” which are very different, you were involved with two of the year’s cultural touchstones. New York Times(Dec 28, 2016) n a basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can be evaluated Syn|Hypo|Hyper criterion, measure, standard benchmark a standard by which something can be measured or judged ERA, earned run average(baseball) a measure of a pitcher's effectiveness; calculated as the average number of earned runs allowed by the pitcher for every nine innings pitched GPA, grade point averagea measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted procrustean bed, procrustean rule, procrustean standarda standard that is enforced uniformly without regard to individuality yardsticka measure or standard used for comparison medium of exchange, monetary systemanything that is generally accepted as a standard of value and a measure of wealth in a particular country or region graduated table, ordered series, scale, scale of measurementan ordered reference standard gauge, standard of measurementaccepted or approved instance or example of a quantity or quality against which others are judged or measured or compared baselinean imaginary line or standard by which things are measured or compared norma standard or model or pattern regarded as typical legal tender, stamp, tendersomething that can be used as an official medium of payment moneythe most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender currencythe metal or paper medium of exchange that is presently used Beaufort scale, wind scalean international scale of wind force from 0 (calm air) to 12 (hurricane) indexa numerical scale used to compare variables with one another or with some reference number logarithmic scalescale on which actual distances from the origin are proportional to the logarithms of the corresponding scale numbers Mercalli scalea scale formerly used to describe the magnitude of an earthquake; an earthquake detected only by seismographs is a I and an earthquake that destroys all buildings is a XII Mohs scalea scale of hardness of solids; talc is 0 and diamond is 10; ordering is determined by which substance can scratch another substance Richter scalea logarithmic scale of 1 to 10 formerly used to express the magnitude of an earthquake on the basis of the size of seismograph oscillations moment magnitude scalea logarithmic scale of 1 to 10 (a successor to the Richter scale) that enables seismologists to compare the energy released by different earthquakes on the basis of the area of the geological fault that ruptured in the quake temperature scalea system of measuring temperature wage scale, wage schedulea schedule of wages paid for different jobs metric, system of measurement a system of related measures that facilitates the quantification of some particular characteristic |
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