National Bureau of Standards

American  

noun

U.S. Government.

1. the federal agency that establishes the standards for units used in measuring the physical properties of substances. NBS, N.B.S.

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National Bureau of Standards British  

noun

1. (in the US) an organization, founded in 1901, whose function is to establish and maintain standards for units of measurements Compare British Standards Institution

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Example Sentences

During World War I, the U.S. government enlisted the National Bureau of Standards to bring order to the chaos.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

Gulf repaired the vehicle, which appeared at promotional events, and later sold it to an engineer who had tested it at the National Bureau of Standards.

From Slate • Aug. 2, 2022

During her time at the National Bureau of Standards, research chemist Reatha Clark King performed calorimetric experiments to understand the precise heats of various flourine compounds.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

Earlier, he oversaw Howard University’s computing office and did mathematics work for what was then the National Bureau of Standards, among other projects.

From Washington Post • Nov. 21, 2017

It would be led by Lyman J. Briggs, a career government scientist then directing the National Bureau of Standards, which by default served as the government’s physics laboratory.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik