touchstone
/ˈtʌt͡ʃstəʊn/
touchstone noun: a stone used to verify the quality of gold alloys by rubbing them in order to leave a visible trace.
Noun
touchstone (plural touchstones)
- A stone used to verify the quality of gold alloys by rubbing them in order to leave a visible trace.
- A standard of comparison or evaluation.
- Near-synonym: comparator
- The foregoing doctrine affords us also a touchstone for the trial of spirits.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- Synonyms:
- comparator
Proper noun capitalized: Touchstone
Touchstone (plural Touchstones)
- A surname.
touchstone meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
touchstone in Hindi
- stone used to test the quality of gold alloys
- कसौटी kasauṭī, मापदंड māpdaṇḍ, निकष nikaṣ, निकषण nikṣaṇ, परस paras, पारस pāras
- standard of comparison or evaluation
- मापदंड māpdaṇḍ, मानदंड māndaṇḍ, पैमाना paimānā, परीक्षा parīkṣā, कसौटी kasauṭī, निकषण nikṣaṇ
touchstone in Tamil
- stone used to test the quality of gold alloys
- உரைகல் uraikal
touchstone in Marathi
- touchstone, test, assessment, trial
- कसोटी kasoṭī
touchstone in Urdu
- touchstone
- عیار 'iyār
- touchstone, criterion
- ٹکسال ṭaksāl
- touchstone, standard of measure
- معیار mi'yār
More languagesFewer languages
- touchstone in Malayalam
- ഉരകല്ല്, ചാണ, ശാണ, ശാണം
- touchstone in Kannada
- ಒರೆಗಲ್ಲು, ಒಱೆಗಲ್ಲು
- touchstone in Sanskrit
- शाण śāṇa
- touchstone in Arabic
- مِحَكّ miḥakk
- touchstone in Persian
- سنگ محک
- touchstone in Myanmar
- မှတ်ကျောက် hmatkyauk
Examples of touchstone in a sentence
- "Expectation of life" is an elastic term: the touchstone here is rather the aggregate amount of work that the locomotive does during its working life.1950 January, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 12:
- Although there has not been very much direct treatment of the Holocaust in analytic moral philosophy, the Nazis appear again and again as examples or touchstones in the construction of moral theories.2002 January, Eve Garrard, “Forgiveness and the Holocaust”, in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, page 147:
- In the print firestorm that followed the publication of the royal couple's letters, the generalissima was one polemical touchstone.2012, Ann Baynes Coiro, Thomas Fulton, Rethinking Historicism from Shakespeare to Milton, page 243:
- Brokeback Mountain did take home three Oscars, including a prestigious best director prize for Ang Lee, and remains a beloved gay touchstone.2025 June 20, Nick Levine, “'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood – and...
Synonyms of touchstone
Forms of touchstone
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | touchstones |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Touchstones |
Origin of touchstone
From touch + stone.
Questions about touchstone
- What does touchstone mean?
- Touchstone means a stone used to verify the quality of gold alloys by rubbing them in order to leave a visible trace.
- What is touchstone in Hindi?
- Touchstone in Hindi is कसौटी (kasauṭī), मापदंड (māpdaṇḍ), निकष (nikaṣ). See Touchstone meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use touchstone in a sentence?
- "Expectation of life" is an elastic term: the touchstone here is rather the aggregate amount of work that the locomotive does during its working life.
- What part of speech is touchstone?
- Touchstone can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce touchstone?
- Touchstone is pronounced /ˈtʌt͡ʃstəʊn/.
- What is the plural of touchstone?
- The plural of touchstone is touchstones.
Words near touchstone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: touchstone (page history and authors); Touchstone (page history and authors); कसोटी (Marathi) (page history and authors); عیار (Urdu) (page history and authors); touchstone (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); touchstone (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); शाण (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-touchstone.wav.
Cite this entry: “touchstone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/touchstone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.