benchmarking

American  

[bench-mahr-king] / ˈbɛntʃˌmɑr kɪŋ /

noun

1. the act or practice of measuring something against a standard, or of testing it in order to develop such a standard.

   The system measures nursing outcomes on a numerical scale, facilitating the benchmarking of nursing practices across facilities and jurisdictions.

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Etymology

Origin of benchmarking

First recorded in 1965–70; benchmark ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

benchmarking

“We’re finalizing that at the moment, benchmarking what’s reasonable,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

In benchmarking of models’ cyber strengths, AIs are told to gain access to a computer system.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

The AI system appeared to have decided to hack Hugging Face as the quickest route to answer a benchmarking question, said Ariel Herbert-Voss, chief executive of the cybersecurity firm RunSybil.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Google’s current top AI model is slightly weaker on benchmarking tests than the latest releases from Anthropic and OpenAI, according to research institute Epoch AI.

From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026

Mythos is likely only the beginning of this sort of advanced AI hacking capability, and the order sets up a voluntary benchmarking process to determine which models pose a threat.

From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026