benchmark
BENCH-marknounMeaning a standard that other things are measured against
Memory hook BENCH-MARK: the MARK on the BENCH. Every summer, Lila stands by the old park bench where Dad once marked her height. That mark is the benchmark she measures her growing against.
Her record time became the benchmark for every runner on the team.
In context The first phone that fit in a pocket set a new benchmark; after that, every company measured its phones against that one’s size and weight.
Similar standard, yardstick, touchstone, gauge
From surveying: a benchmark was a mark cut into stone where a surveyor set a bracket, or bench, to measure heights from.