An essential part of something, as in “Nirvana was a touchstone of the grunge music scene in the 1990s”. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/touchstone. Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary, the webmaster's page for free fun content. If you use one thing as a touchstone of another, you use it as a test or standard by which you judge the second thing. Job security has become the touchstone of a good job. A means by which individuals are compared and judged: Whether his religion was real, or consisted only in appearance, I shall not presume to say, as I am not possessed of any, The woman took the thimble and examined it, weighed it, and submitted its metal to the test of the, He, however, no doubt would forgive thee, for he was the most humble-minded and courteous knight of his time, and moreover a great protector of damsels; but some there are that might have heard thee, and it would not have been well for thee in that case; for they are not all courteous or mannerly; some are ill-conditioned scoundrels; nor is it everyone that calls himself a gentleman, that is so in all respects; some are gold, others pinchbeck, and all look like gentlemen, but not all can stand the, Contact with the stage, almost throughout its history, presents itself as a kind of, Death is so genuine a fact that it excludes falsehood, or betrays its emptiness; it is a, Where men are congregated, conduct must be regulated by the, Gold can be only known by the application of the, Should not a magistrate be not merely the best administrator of the law, but the most crafty expounder of the chicanery of his profession, a steel probe to search hearts, a, "the qualities of courage and vision that are the touchstones of leadership". In the late 15th century, gold and silver was rubbed, or touched against black quartz — the touchstone — to determine the purity of the metals. [ + of/for] Synonyms: standard, measure, par, criterion More Synonyms of touchstone COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. It's free and takes five seconds. Use the noun touchstone to describe a basis for comparison. The "criterion" sense, which goes back more than 470 years, alludes to a method of testing the purity of a sample of gold. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! fine service is one touchstone of a first-class restaurant. What made you want to look up touchstone? It's free and takes five seconds. polls as a gauge of voter dissatisfaction yardstick is an informal substitute for criterion that suggests quantity more often than quality. Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox! An excellent quality or example that is used to test the excellence or genuineness of others: "the qualities of courage and vision that are the touchstones of leadership" (Henry A. Kissinger). 1 : a fundamental or quintessential part or feature : basis a touchstone film of that decade now considered a touchstone of the city's life — Michael Specter. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. 2 : a test or criterion for determining the quality or genuineness of a thing. This was done by looking at the color of the streaks left on the stone. 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. The earlier sense, "a criterion for quality" (as in "I Love Lucy is often seen as a touchstone for comparison with today's TV comedy shows"), provides a better clue to the original meaning of "touchstone," however. “Touchstone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/touchstone. This method has proved accurate enough that touchstones are still used by jewelers today. Job security has become the touchstone of a good job for many employees. Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020. A touchstone, as used in casual conversation, can mean two things: A way to measure the quality of something, as in “His athletic success became a touchstone for future athletes at the school”. standards of behavior criterion may apply to anything used as a test of quality whether formulated as a rule or principle or not. Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. Touchstone as it is defined today comes from an actual stone. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. The mark it made was compared to adjacent rubbings on the touchstone from gold of known purity. a standard by which something can be measured or judged, (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, a 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, a standard that is enforced uniformly without regard to individuality, a measure or standard used for comparison, anything that is generally accepted as a standard of value and a measure of wealth in a particular country or region, accepted or approved instance or example of a quantity or quality against which others are judged or measured or compared, an imaginary line or standard by which things are measured or compared, a standard or model or pattern regarded as typical, something that can be used as an official medium of payment, the most common medium of exchange; functions as legal tender, the metal or paper medium of exchange that is presently used, an international scale of wind force from 0 (calm air) to 12 (hurricane), a numerical scale used to compare variables with one another or with some reference number, scale on which actual distances from the origin are proportional to the logarithms of the corresponding scale numbers, a 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, a scale of hardness of solids; talc is 0 and diamond is 10; ordering is determined by which substance can scratch another substance, a logarithmic scale of 1 to 10 formerly used to express the magnitude of an earthquake on the basis of the size of seismograph oscillations, a 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, a schedule of wages paid for different jobs, a system of related measures that facilitates the quantification of some particular characteristic. Which of the following is a fruit named after a Moroccan seaport. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? standard applies to any definite rule, principle, or measure established by authority. Use the noun touchstone to describe a basis for comparison. questioned the critic's criteria for excellence gauge applies to a means of testing a particular dimension (such as thickness, depth, diameter) or figuratively a particular quality or aspect. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'touchstone.' 'Nip it in the butt' or 'Nip it in the bud'? Sign up. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). housing construction as a yardstick of economic growth touchstone suggests a simple test of the authenticity or value of something intangible. This is why a touchstone, in the figurative sense as it is used today, is a measuring tool. The sample was rubbed on a piece of dark quartz or jasper - the "touchstone." Sign up. See the full definition for touchstone in the English Language Learners Dictionary, Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for touchstone, Nglish: Translation of touchstone for Spanish Speakers, Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about touchstone. Touchstone as it is defined today comes from an actual stone. Delivered to your inbox! Our example sentence uses "touchstone" in its most recently acquired sense: "a fundamental part." 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. standard, criterion, gauge, yardstick, touchstone mean a means of determining what a thing should be. Whether you're a student, an educator, or a lifelong learner, Vocabulary.com can put you Born in 1963 in an era of full-sugar drinks and originally aimed just at women, TaB became a pop culture, But that 97 mph fastball plunking Acuna Jr.'s hip became the, Sandler refreshed the song with new references throughout the years, but the original is a, Maybe Trump retweeting a Pepe meme is an obvious, Post the Definition of touchstone to Facebook, Share the Definition of touchstone on Twitter, 'Cordial': A Word Straight from the Heart. Definition of touchstone. Learn a new word every day. Send us feedback. Touchstone Applied Science Associates, Inc. Don't have an account yet?

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