How to Use yardstick in a Sentence

yardstick

noun
  • Some feel that test scores aren't an adequate yardstick for judging a student's ability.
  • Ratings are the yardstick by which TV shows are evaluated by networks.
  • Ramos shoves a yardstick in his hand and a tricorn on his head.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024
  • Good Grief, grab a yardstick and knock the knife from her hand.
    — Rachel Pannett, Washington Post, 29 Nov. 2023
  • First, shove a yardstick beneath the front of your front tires.
    — Katherine Keeler, Car and Driver, 21 Mar. 2023
  • And cost per click is not the yardstick that all brands should be using.
    — Kiri Masters, Forbes, 6 May 2022
  • By that yardstick, this clearance moved briskly.
    — Emil Sayegh, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
  • Still, any two-seater must inevitably be held up to the sports-car yardstick.
    — Patrick Bedard, Car and Driver, 19 Aug. 2023
  • The three-horse race of cable news, of course, is no longer the main yardstick.
    — Dade Hayes, Deadline, 14 Nov. 2025
  • There has to be some kind of yardstick to measure yourself against.
    — CBS News, 28 Sep. 2022
  • Set up a model railroad track with the two rulers or yardsticks and your book or box.
    — Svenja Lohner, Scientific American, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Nielsen is putting a new media yardstick out of arm’s reach, for the time being.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 7 Sep. 2023
  • The Zoom call is the yardstick by which fashion is measured now.
    — Nancy MacDonell, WSJ, 22 Sep. 2020
  • By this yardstick, the Safer is one of the biggest ever built.
    — The New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2021
  • There’s no perfect yardstick of business heft.
    — Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 22 Apr. 2026
  • But officials made their best guess and brought the yardsticks out to measure.
    — Daniel Victor, New York Times, 18 Dec. 2017
  • The best yardstick of sales is the number of background checks done when a gun is purchased.
    — Joe Taschler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6 Mar. 2018
  • The shape of the memory becomes the brain’s yardstick of time.
    — Popular Science, 30 May 2020
  • Use hot glue to attach the plastic party cups to one end of the yardstick (an adult's job).
    — Rachelle Doorley, Parents, 16 Aug. 2023
  • Staff beat him on the ears, hands, and back with a yardstick and hit him with a strap made from a conveyor belt.
    — Annie Hylton, Longreads, 10 Aug. 2020
  • That's not a yardstick for being successful around here.
    — Rick Cantu, Austin American Statesman, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Having more of them to work with is akin to getting a larger, more precise yardstick.
    — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 14 Sep. 2016
  • Keep yardsticks or old paint stirrers handy to separate the snow from the bucket.
    — Sally Walker Davies, Popular Mechanics, 11 Feb. 2014
  • The Trojans used to be the yardstick by which others were measured.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Some were the size of sesame seeds, some were the size of pinky fingernails and some were almost as long as a yardstick.
    — Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 Oct. 2017
  • Index providers build the gauges that passive funds track and active managers use as a yardstick.
    — The Economist, 24 Oct. 2020
  • California, by some yardsticks, is among the states with the strictest gun laws in the country.
    — New York Times, 29 July 2019
  • This rate has become one of the few reliable yardsticks against which to peg prices in Venezuela.
    — The Economist, 25 Jan. 2018
  • There’s no perfect yardstick of worldly business heft.
    — Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 2 May 2026
  • Using the lane as a yardstick, Schwartz’s account put hers at 8 or 9 feet.
    — Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press, 22 Feb. 2024

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

Last Updated: