bench mark

• POS: Noun Phrase

CIDE DICTIONARY

bench mark,  

•  Any permanent mark to which other levels may be referred.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  something serving as a standard by which related items may be judged; as, his painting sets the benchmark of quality.  [PJC]
•  a test or series of tests designed to compare the qualities or performance of different devices of the same type. Certain sets of computer programs are much used as benchmarks for comparing the performance of different computers, especially by comparing the time it takes to complete a test.  [PJC]

THESAURUS

bench mark

abode, area, bearings, bookmark, cairn, cardinal point, catstone, chief thing, climax, core, cornerstone, crisis, critical point, crux, district, emplacement, essence, essential, essential matter, fundamental, gist, gravamen, great point, heart, high point, hole, important thing, issue, kernel, keystone, landmark, latitude and longitude, lieu, lighthouse, lightship, locale, locality, location, locus, main point, main thing, mark, marker, material point, meat, menhir, milepost, milestone, monument, nub, pharos, pinpoint, pith, pivot, place, placement, platform, point, position, real issue, region, salient point, seamark, sine qua non, site, situation, situs, spot, stead, substance, substantive point, the bottom line, the point, tower, turning point, watchtower, whereabout, whereabouts