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.
Some lenders are applying more conservative underwriting criteria to entire industries because of the threat that AI poses.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
He said that the proposal could mean that a country that aligns itself with the EU on certain criteria would be allowed to join certain bloc formats, for example, attending European Council meetings.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
This, in turn, certainly raises the question for the rest of us as to what the criteria might actually be.
From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026
Third, publish research that meets the criteria of relevant research—studies that answer questions that are timely, describe real problems, for which answers aren’t obvious, and for which findings are operationally valid.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026
But new scales of achievement, for example the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test, had emerged as criteria by which to judge.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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.
