Standards

Pronunciation

Noun

plural

1. Plural of standard

Adverb

1. (plural form only): Pertaining to standards, concerned with standards, specific to standards.There is some sign of disparate standards bodies becoming more closely aligned.

Usage notes

A body or organization that dictates standards does not exist to confer details about a single standard. Standard as an adjective generally refers to a specific version of a standard issued by a standards institution; that standard version itself will actually be a list of many individual standards. For example, ANSI Standard MUMPS refers to the 1995 MUMPS programming language specification issued by the American National Standards Institute, a standards organization. 1995 MUMPS standard specifies many standards that a programming language must adhere to, to be legitimately recognised as "standard MUMPS."