Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

up to par

Idioms  

  1. Also,. Satisfactory, up to a given standard, as in She didn't feel up to par today so she stayed home, or I'm sure he'll come up to scratch when the time comes, or She's up to snuff again. Nearly all the versions of this idiom come from sports, par from golf, scratch and mark from boxing (after being knocked down a fighter had eight seconds to make his way to a mark scratched in the center of the ring), and speed from racing. However, the allusion in the variant with snuff, which dates from the early 1800s, has been lost.

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.

Owners should declutter their space, ensure that photos of the property are up to par, eliminate any unsavory smells, and consider if their home would benefit from professional staging, agents say.

From Barron's • Oct. 26, 2025

"It obviously was not the result I wanted, but of course in the first couple of sets the level of tennis wasn’t up to par from my side," Djokovic said.

From BBC • Jul. 14, 2024

He said his supervisors told him his “performance” was not up to par.

From Washington Times • Jun. 21, 2023

“I went into it saying, ‘I have to be up to par.’

From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2023

It took a little while to bring it up to par, and I had to disable some alarms on the suit.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

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.