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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.


Etymology

Origin of benchmarking

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

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.

ADP’s annual benchmarking pegged 2025 private payroll growth at 398,000 jobs, down from 771,000 in 2024.

From Barron's

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data are slated to undergo a similar benchmarking, which will be published in the January jobs report.

From Barron's

He’s interested in cutting-edge AI research, the war for talent in Silicon Valley, safety and performance benchmarking, forecasting and the revolution under way at the world’s biggest technology companies.

From The Wall Street Journal

Traditional benchmarking systems typically involve asking a model individual questions and evaluating its individual answers, said Graham Neubig, associate professor at the Carnegie Mellon University Language Technology Institute.

From The Wall Street Journal

But capitalization-weighted indexes have become concentrated today in so few stocks and industries that benchmarking investments to an index could lead to massive underperformance in the next five to 10 years.

From Barron's