criteria
Americannoun
Usage
What does criteria mean? Criteria is the plural of criterion—a standard or principle for judging, evaluating, or selecting something. Criteria are the ideals or requirements on which a judgment, evaluation, or selection is based. The plural of criterion can also be criterions, but this is rarely used. Criteria are often the particular requirements that someone or something must meet in order to be considered or qualify for something. An applicant for a job may be evaluated based on several criteria, including their education, experience, and references—each one of these standards is a criterion. Your grade in a class may be based on certain criteria, such as your test scores, your grades on homework and other assignments, and your participation in class. Similarly, a gymnast’s score is based on several criteria involving how well they performed certain moves. The word criteria is often used with the word meet, as in Your entry meets all of our criteria for inclusion in the exhibit. Sometimes, people try to use criteria as a singular noun (like how data is sometimes used), but this is generally considered not the right way to use it. Example: We assess the candidates based on several criteria, and one criterion is that they must have at least five years of experience in a similar position.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Just last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the Principal Design Criteria for Aurora—essentially, a foundational rulebook for the plant’s safety and performance standards.
From Barron's • May 12, 2026
Criteria included space, facilities, staff expertise and herd dynamics.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 31, 2026
Criteria can drift from sustained findings of lying under oath to broad categories like “bias” or “integrity concerns,” sometimes based on unsustained complaints or internal politics.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025
Criteria vary from danger to a lack of capacity for consent and the need for treatment.
From Salon • Nov. 17, 2024
Criteria like this can be used to determine how likely it is that sequences of heads and tails or Xs and Os or hits and misses are randomly generated.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
