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benchmark

Pronunciation: /ˈbɛnt͡ʃmɑːk/

The English word “benchmark” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.
  2. A surveyor's mark made on some stationary object and shown on a map; used as a reference point.
  3. A computer program that is executed to assess the performance of the runtime environment.

verb

  1. To give certain results in a benchmark test.
  2. To use something (e.g., a competitor's product) as a standard to improve one's own thing.

Etymology

From bench + mark. First use appears c. 1842. Originally a mark cut into a stone by land surveyors to secure a bench (from land surveying jargon in the 19th century, meaning a type of bracket), to mount measuring equipment. The figurative sense first appears c. 1884.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.