benchmark

A standard by which something is evaluated or measured.

Near-synonym: criterion

Is the pope Catholic? Forgive the posing of a question that is usually rhetorical, the absolute benchmark of certainty, and traditionally regarded as even more settled than the one pertaining to the lavatorial arrangements of bears.

A surveyor's mark made on some stationary object and shown on a map; used as a reference point.

Near-synonym: datum

A computer program that is executed to assess the performance of the runtime environment.

To measure the performance or quality of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.

To measure the performance or quality of (an item) relative to another similar item in an impartial scientific manner.