standard

«standard» in Mova's school dictionary: a level of quality, how good something is or should be:… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a standard, standards); adjective (standard)

meaning for a pupil

1) A standard is a level of quality, how good something is or should be: «a high standard». tree →

2) Standards are rules or ideas about what is right and acceptable behaviour. tree →

3) Standard (adjective) means normal, usual, the ordinary kind: «a standard size». tree →

4) A standard is a measurement or unit that everyone agrees to use, like the metre. tree →

5) A standard is a flag carried on a pole, often by soldiers long ago. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school, teachers keep «high standards» for work and behaviour; tests check whether pupils «meet the standard». In maths and science «standard units» (metres, kilograms, litres) let everyone measure the same way, instead of hands or feet. «Standard form» is a way of writing numbers. In everyday life «standard» means the usual model, not special. Phrases: «up to standard», «meet the standard», «standard size», «living standards», «double standard».

examples

• Your handwriting is up to a high standard. tree →
• The school expects good standards of behaviour. tree →
• This is a standard size of paper. tree →
• We use standard units like metres to measure. tree →
• His work was not up to standard, so he did it again. tree →
• The car comes with standard seats. tree →
• The knight carried the king's standard into battle. tree →
• It's a double standard to tell us to be quiet when you shout. tree →
• Unless he adopt a better standard of justice we will go on with our destruction." tree →

note

Countable: a standard, standards. Spelling: ends in -ard, not -art. In maths, «standard units» are agreed units (cm, kg, L), while «non-standard units» are things like paper clips or hand spans. «Standard» as an adjective has no -er/-est forms.

In the corpora

• Slang words follow the ordinary plural rules (arvo, arvos), but school writing uses the standard word (afternoons).
• An accent is the way words sound; any dialect, including Standard English, can be spoken in any accent.
• SATs grammar questions in England ask for Standard English, so pupils need to know the standard forms as well as their home forms.
• Dialect is fine in talk and in characters' speech; formal writing usually uses Standard English.
• "Working towards" on a UK report means not yet meeting the expected standard.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «standard» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.