"litmus test" meaning in All languages combined

See litmus test on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: litmus tests [plural]
Etymology: From litmus + test. Etymology templates: {{com|en|litmus|test}} litmus + test Head templates: {{en-noun}} litmus test (plural litmus tests)
  1. (chemistry) A simple, binary test for the acidity or alkalinity of a substance, using litmus paper. Categories (topical): Chemistry Translations (chemistry): lakmoesproef [feminine] (Dutch), lakmustesti (Finnish), ლაკმუსის ტესტი (laḳmusis ṭesṭi) (Georgian), Lackmustest [masculine] (German), cartina tornasole [feminine] (Italian), lackmustest [neuter] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-litmus_test-en-noun-en:chemical_test__especially_for_pH Categories (other): Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 46 54 Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences Disambiguation of 'chemistry': 100 0
  2. (figuratively, by extension) Any test which produces a binary, decisive result (for example, determining whether to appoint someone to a job) by measuring a single indicator. Tags: broadly, figuratively
    Sense id: en-litmus_test-en-noun-en:bar_for_persons__figuratively Categories (other): English links with manual fragments, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Dutch translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with Georgian translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Italian translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 60 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 36 64 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 46 54 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 62 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 28 72 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 27 73 Disambiguation of Terms with Georgian translations: 27 73 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 25 75 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 25 75 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 26 74
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Translations (figurative senses): lakmoesproef [feminine] (Dutch), lakmoestest [masculine] (Dutch), ლაკმუსის ტესტი (laḳmusis ṭesṭi) (Georgian), Lackmustest [masculine] (German), Nagelprobe [feminine] (German), Prüfstein [masculine] (German), cartina tornasole [feminine] (Italian), lackmustest [neuter] (Swedish)
Disambiguation of 'figurative senses': 46 54

Inflected forms

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          "text": "Coordinate term: acid test"
        },
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          "text": "Exams, not interviews, have become the litmus test for entry to university.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1940 October 2, Allison Danzig, “Leading Elevens Face Stern Threats in Saturday's Games”, in New York Times, page 27:",
          "text": "Temple, under its new coach, Ray Morrison, formerly of Vanderbilt, will be put to the blue litmus test Friday night when it takes on Georgetown.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998 February 16, “Baby-Boomer Bonding”, in Newsweek:",
          "text": "For good reasons or bad, early membership of the currency union has become the litmus test of being a \"good European.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004 November 15, Matthew Cooper, “Candidates In the Wings”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-02-20:",
          "text": "He opposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage—a litmus test for many social conservatives",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018 March 1, Steven Kurutz, quoting Lisa Schwarzbaum, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like ‘Manhattan’?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "For years, quoting lines from “Manhattan” or another film by Mr. Allen on a date could be a romantic litmus test, a way to find out if a potential partner also loved E. E. Cummings, Paris, 1930s jazz and the sophisticated, cultured world the films often came to represent.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 44:",
          "text": "\"[…] I don't know National Rail numbers, but I do know that after the pandemic I used to go round a lot of the London stations, and they had far more locations shut than I did at St Pancras. That was very much my litmus test.\"",
          "type": "quote"
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      "_dis1": "46 54",
      "code": "de",
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      "sense": "figurative senses",
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      "_dis1": "46 54",
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
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      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "cartina tornasole"
    },
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      "_dis1": "46 54",
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    }
  ],
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  "word": "litmus test"
}
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        "A simple, binary test for the acidity or alkalinity of a substance, using litmus paper."
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          "ref": "1940 October 2, Allison Danzig, “Leading Elevens Face Stern Threats in Saturday's Games”, in New York Times, page 27:",
          "text": "Temple, under its new coach, Ray Morrison, formerly of Vanderbilt, will be put to the blue litmus test Friday night when it takes on Georgetown.",
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        {
          "ref": "1998 February 16, “Baby-Boomer Bonding”, in Newsweek:",
          "text": "For good reasons or bad, early membership of the currency union has become the litmus test of being a \"good European.\"",
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        {
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        {
          "ref": "2018 March 1, Steven Kurutz, quoting Lisa Schwarzbaum, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like ‘Manhattan’?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "For years, quoting lines from “Manhattan” or another film by Mr. Allen on a date could be a romantic litmus test, a way to find out if a potential partner also loved E. E. Cummings, Paris, 1930s jazz and the sophisticated, cultured world the films often came to represent.",
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        {
          "ref": "2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 44:",
          "text": "\"[…] I don't know National Rail numbers, but I do know that after the pandemic I used to go round a lot of the London stations, and they had far more locations shut than I did at St Pancras. That was very much my litmus test.\"",
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        "(figuratively, by extension) Any test which produces a binary, decisive result (for example, determining whether to appoint someone to a job) by measuring a single indicator."
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "chemistry",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "lakmoesproef"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "chemistry",
      "word": "lakmustesti"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "laḳmusis ṭesṭi",
      "sense": "chemistry",
      "word": "ლაკმუსის ტესტი"
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      "sense": "chemistry",
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      ],
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    },
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      "code": "it",
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      "sense": "chemistry",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "cartina tornasole"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
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      "roman": "laḳmusis ṭesṭi",
      "sense": "figurative senses",
      "word": "ლაკმუსის ტესტი"
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      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
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      "code": "it",
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      "tags": [
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      "word": "cartina tornasole"
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}

Download raw JSONL data for litmus test meaning in All languages combined (5.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (ca09fec and c40eb85). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.