standpoint
Americannoun
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the point or place at which a person stands to view something.
-
the mental position, attitude, etc., from which a person views and judges things.
From the lawyer's standpoint, her client is right.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of standpoint
Explanation
Your standpoint is the position, either physical or mental, from which you perceive things. From a practical standpoint, your parents might want you to study accounting—but you're determined to follow your dream of becoming a professional mime. You can also call your standpoint your "point of view." From the standpoint of your position across the room, you can just barely see your friends watching a televised soccer match and cheering on their favorite teams. From your standpoint as a basketball fan, you find soccer incredibly boring. It's the outlook you have on life or certain subjects that gives you this second kind of standpoint. The word comes directly from the German equivalent, Standpunkt.
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.
See Examples For:
Yet none of the experts I interviewed viewed the term as inherently meaningful from a scientific standpoint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Russian financial assets are, for the vast majority of international investors, prohibited from a legal standpoint and impossible from an operational perspective.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
As Wolff said: "Certainly from a spectacle standpoint, everybody would have loved to see Lewis on a soft against us and maybe fighting with Leclerc."
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
We tested our model, using techniques such as factor analysis and principal component analysis, to ensure that all of the pieces fit together from a statistical standpoint.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
Perhaps, even from our narrow standpoint of direct self-interest, the relation is a useful one.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
The constitutional court said back in 2001 that "as time passes, the relative importance of standpoints and positions of people in a totalitarian state certainly has not vanished, but it has definitely decreased".
From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026
"From a portfolio and focus standpoints, it makes sense to drop them and concentrate on higher-volume products like the Model 3 and Model Y, along with other business expansion bets," Caldwell added.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026
"From medical and economic standpoints, therefore, it seems reasonable to give these patients a CSF analysis in the first instance unless there are specific medical reasons to indicate otherwise," says Brendel.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2024
“I felt like not only was he going to protect me, from legal standpoints and business standpoints, but also look out for my future,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
From legal and political standpoints, what happened to Emmett Till was all but swept under the rug for almost fifty years.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
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.
