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Gold Standard (Noun)

A monetary standard under which the basic unit of currency is defined by a stated quantity of gold.

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession.

The gold standard was widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a monetary policy tool to stabilize exchange rates and control inflation.
During the Great Depression, many countries abandoned the gold standard in order to implement expansionary monetary policies.
The United States was on the gold standard from 1879 to 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt suspended the gold standard to address the economic crisis.
The gold standard limited the government's ability to print money, as the amount of currency in circulation was tied to the amount of gold held in reserve.
The International Monetary Fund has discussed the possibility of returning to a modified gold standard as a way to stabilize the global financial system.

A paragon of excellence; "academic education is the gold standard against which other educational activity is pejoratively judged".

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents.

She had always considered the restaurant at the top of the mountain to be the gold standard for fine dining, and every other establishment paled in comparison.
For decades, his research laboratory had been the gold standard for innovative discoveries in the field of renewable energy.
In the world of professional sports, winning the championship was the gold standard by which all other teams measured their success.
Many experts consider a rigorous, in-person, 4-year university degree to be the gold standard of higher education, with online degrees often being viewed as inferior.
For audiophiles, a vinyl record played on a high-quality turntable was the gold standard for listening to music, far superior to compressed digital formats.