benchmarks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of benchmark.

   Analysts compared the firm's results against several industry benchmarks.

   Surveyors planted brass benchmarks along the ridge to fix elevation readings.

   Note

   One spelling covers three different things: standards used to judge performance, surveyors' marks made on stationary objects and shown on maps, and programs run to measure how a computing environment performs. Context usually decides. Industry benchmarks are standards, brass ones on a ridge are survey marks, and a reviewer's benchmarks are test programs. The same form also serves as the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of benchmark.

   The agency benchmarks each school's results against the national average.

   Her firm benchmarks its hiring practices against leading employers every year.

   Note

   The verb works in two directions. Usually the subject does the measuring and takes an object plus against: a firm benchmarks its practices against rivals, using a competitor's standard to improve its own. In testing, the subject can instead be the thing being measured. A device that benchmarks a certain result is the one giving it, and that use works with or without an object.

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