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Benchmark vs Criteria - What's the difference?

benchmark | criteria |

As nouns the difference between benchmark and criteria

is that benchmark is a standard by which something is evaluated or measured while criteria is plural of lang=en.

As a verb benchmark

is to measure the performance of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.

benchmark

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.
  • * 2013 , Martina Hyde, Is the pope Catholic?'' (in ''The Guardian , 20 September 2013)[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/is-pope-catholic-atheists-gay-people-abortion]
    • Is the pope Catholic? Forgive the posing of a question that is usually rhetorical, the absolute benchmark of certainty, and traditionally regarded as even more settled than the one pertaining to the lavatorial arrangements of bears.
  • A surveyor's mark made on some stationary object and shown on a map; used as a reference point.
  • (computing) A computer program that is executed to assess the performance of the runtime environment.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To measure the performance of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.

    • References

    criteria

    English

    Noun

    (head)
  • * (seeCites)
  • (nonstandard, proscribed) A single criterion.
  • * (seeCites)

    • Usage notes

    * The word criteria'' is often treated as singular or even uncountable, but these uses are usually still considered incorrect; the standard singular form is ''criterion''. The standard and most common plural form is ''criteria''; less common is ''criterions''. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criterion Merriam-Webster]: "The plural ''criteria'' has been used as a singular for over half a century . Many of our examples, like the two foregoing, are taken from speech. But singular ''criteria'' is not uncommon in edited prose, and its use both in speech and writing seems to be increasing. Only time will tell whether it will reach the unquestioned acceptability of ''agenda''."[http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/criterion American Heritage: "Like the analogous etymological plurals ''agenda'' and ''data'', ''criteria is widely used as a singular form. Unlike them, however, it is not yet acceptable in that use."

    Derived terms

    * criterial

    References

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