How to Use point of reference in a Sentence

point of reference

noun phrase
  • Were any of the brothers a point of reference?
    — Kia D. Goosby, Vanity Fair, 25 Apr. 2026
  • That served as the point of reference, though not in a literal, one-to-one sense.
    — Christine Mortag, Condé Nast Traveler, 13 May 2026
  • For those who don’t live in the region, mesquite chips used for grilling and smoking may be their only point of reference.
    — Suzanne Wright, USA Today, 11 Nov. 2025
  • One of the book’s goals was to help create a point of reference that future scholars can build on, challenge, or revise.
    — Tim Brinkhof, JSTOR Daily, 8 Oct. 2025
  • The United States still matters to people in China as a point of reference.
    — Lavender Au, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Rather than focusing solely on the fish, the photographer wanted to use it as a point of reference within a much larger world.
    — Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • And Witt has another point of reference to define where the Titans are at in Year Three.
    — Brian Robin, Oc Register, 17 Oct. 2025
  • The museum uses Akrotiri as a point of reference for the life and culture of prehistoric Thira.
    — Noel Burgess, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • And, on the subject of those other sports, the 4 Nations Face-Off was a natural point of reference.
    — Joe Kozlowski, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The tariffs levied on China by the United States were both a point of reference for Macron’s plan and a catalyst for it.
    — Kate Nishimura, Sourcing Journal, 13 Dec. 2025
  • For the new generation of creatives immersed in a world that rushes forward and often rewards the ephemeral, Armani remains a solid point of reference.
    — Andrea Onate, Footwear News, 4 Sep. 2025
  • The images captured by LPRs are put into a database for officers to access, often as their first point of reference in an investigation.
    — Chicago Tribune, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Vogue’s executive fashion director, Lisa Aiken offers another point of reference.
    — Laura Jackson, Vogue, 28 Jan. 2026
  • As a point of reference, our teams record before Vicky was 220 wins-144 losses-39 ties, with Vicky 62 wins-110 losses-15 ties.
    — Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 23 Mar. 2026
  • Highland Park is located in the town of Kirkwall in Orkney, the northernmost part of Scotland that is at the same latitude as the very southern tip of Greenland, for point of reference.
    — Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 24 Nov. 2025
  • As a point of reference, that’s a little longer than the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) that measures 91 meters (300 feet) in length.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Following her conversations with Lythcott, one point of reference Escobedo returned to was the residential stoop, where so many of Harlem’s residents spend their time with their families and neighbors.
    — Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 8 Oct. 2025
  • Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike.
    — Nicole Winfield, Fortune, 25 May 2026
  • Experts in the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely become a benchmark in the debate over AI, a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and people everywhere.
    — Nicole Winfield, Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2026
  • While presidents of both parties have questioned its constitutionality—and Congress has never successfully compelled a withdrawal under its provisions—the law remains a central point of reference as the deadline nears.
    — Nik Popli, Time, 14 Apr. 2026
  • Much more was delivered as the collection unfolded, bringing the style tropes and the histories of the house into a fresh, even disruptive sophistication and a contemporaneity that returned Coco Chanel as the point of reference all at once.
    — Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Much more was delivered as the collection unfolded, bringing the style tropes and the histories of the house into a fresh, even disruptive sophistication and a contemporaneity that returned Coco Chanel as the point of reference all at once.
    — Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 8 Oct. 2025
  • As a point of reference, research has shown that, on average, patients who are overweight or living with obesity can lose roughly anywhere from 10% to 20% of their total body weight on a GLP-1, depending on a few different factors.
    — Petra Guglielmetti, Glamour, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The polls served as a point of reference for journalists and tracked data on partisanship and other rapid public opinion moves during a president's term, USA TODAY reported.
    — Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Ditka’s point of reference was Jim Grabowski, a Chicago kid who starred at fullback in college for Illinois and then for five seasons in the mid-1960s with Ditka’s archrival Green Bay Packers.
    — Rick Armstrong, Chicago Tribune, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Lana Turner, who features opposite Montalban here, was also a powerful point of reference for Lopez, who modeled the persona of star Ingrid Luna after a combination of Rita Hayworth and Turner.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Oct. 2025
  • And thus would fade out what began as a frequent point of reference to Truman, who died in December 1972 — months after the opening of Arrowhead Stadium and months before the inaugural season at what became Kauffman Stadium.
    — Kansas City Star, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Plotting the five tightest league tables at this stage (with the 2025-26 as a point of reference), the inaugural 1992-93 campaign was the tightest, with only one side (Nottingham Forest) failing to accrue 20 points and only one side (Norwich City) accruing more than 40 points after 22 games.
    — Mark Carey, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'point of reference.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: