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I was wondering if someone could tell me about the slight semantic nuance between the words bellow and when each one can be used:

  • Benchmark

  • Criterion

  • Yardstick

  • Touchstone

For me 'benchmark' and 'criterion' mean the same and 'yardstick'and 'touchstone' mean the same too.

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There is a lot of overlap between these terms, and no very clear distinctions; but if you use them this way you won't go far wrong:

  • Criterion is the most general of these terms. It means a parameter: a category of evaluation. It may be either a scalar value, which varies across a range, or a binary value, which is either present or not. For instance, college admission boards may employ both scalar criteria such as a numeric assessment of a candidate's ability to perform complex reasoning and binary criteria such as the candidate's participation in athletics or community service.

  • A yardstick, as the name implies, is a measuring tool: the device or method by which the value of a scalar criterion is measured. The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and grade point average, for instance, are yardsticks for measuring academic ability.

  • A benchmark is a single point whose value is known and which can therefore be used as a standard of comparison. It could be a minimum value which must be equalled or surpassed, or a maximum value towards which everybody aspires, or something in between, such as an average or median value. A benchmark is not a criterion, but a reference point for evaluating conformity to a criterion. For instance, a college admission board might set a 1000 score on the 1600-point Scholastic Assessment Test as a minimal benchmark for admission.

  • A touchstone is technically a device for sampling the color and composition of precious metals, but in non-technical uses it means a kind of loose, 'seat-of-the-pants' yardstick for intangible or unmeasurable values. A famous example is A.E.Housman's touchstone for a 'true poem': does it make the hairs at one's chin bristle if one repeats it silently while shaving? A college admission board might employ 'memorability' as a touchstone: which candidates' essays do I remember after I have read a hundred of them?

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    @A-friend Suppose you are picking basketball players. You have three criteria: height, skill, and will. You can measure height with a tape measure: the tape measure is a yardstick. Or you can say "They have to be taller than 185cm"; 185cm is a benchmark. You can measure skill by stats: "How many points did they score in college competition? That's a yardstick. Or you can say "They have to have been starters for a Division I college program." That's a benchmark. But what about "will"? How do you measure that? ...
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 22:22
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    ... Perhaps you employ a touchstone "He was his conference's leading scorer, but he only scored 10 points in the championship game--but he had 18 assists, and his team won the game. This is a guy who wants to win, and sacrifices his personal stats to do so. Pick him!"
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 22:26
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    @A-friend A 'benchmark' is not an 'index' in any sense of 'index' I am familiar with, but it might be in your discipline. A 'criterion' (that is the singular form) is, loosely, a factor, but not necessarily a 'metric', which is something measured or something with which something is measured.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 23:38
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    @A-friend In distinguishing these words we're really talking less about 'meaning' than about 'use'. Criterion is both a very general and a very formal term. Laws and regulations and professional associations talk about criteria when they are making a formal list of all the matters to be taken into account in reaching a judgment or decision, and they define these matters very carefully. Criteria are ordinarily plural (which is why so few people know the singular form!): usually many criteria go into any judgment...
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 12:28
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    ... A touchstone, by contrast, is almost always singular: it is the single most important question you bring to making a judgment. For instance, in elections many people reduce their decision to a single touchstone issue: what is the candidate's position on abortion or immigration or Obamacare. And it is usually not narrowly defined but very vague and impressionistic, probably because it has the word touch in it (few people know why a touchstone is called that): we don't use touchstone for things that can be measured but for qualities that are felt.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 12:38

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