On a par with Idioms by The Free Dictionary

In the US, stock values declined by 55% during that recession. The recent decline in stock values is not yet on par with the decline in the most recent recession. Less strong a preference as found in ngrams, but still suggesting “on a par with” is the more common form. Because of this you will sometimes find “on par with” used figuratively for other contexts even outside of headline style and golf. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only.

You can simply hover your mouse over the highlighted word . This lets you learn the definition of the word without having to press pause on the audio. The transcript of this lesson is available with interactive translations into Spanish. I would use “at par”, to at least use the term consistently with golf, for what it is worth. I don’t mean that voter turnout was exactly, precisely what was expected.

Up-to-par Definition

But it looks like it is used more across the pond in the beautiful British Isles. However, if you are writing an academic piece, I’d avoid it altogether and use “at the same level”. There aren’t official rules about how long a hole has to be to be called a par 3, 4 or 5, but governing bodies have published guidelines for the length of holes and par ratings.

“Par” is also used to describe a golfer’s scoring performance on an individual hole or for a complete round of golf. If you complete a par-4 hole having used four strokes, then you are said to have “parred the hole.” This is also referred to as being “even-par” or “level par.” If you’ve got some extra time on your hands and would like to spend some more time with English, then you might enjoy Plain English Plus+ .

Dictionary Entries Near par

As a member of Plain English Plus+, you’ll get access to the fast version of every episode, video lessons, flash cards, and the lesson transcripts with built-in translations into seven languages. Those are Portuguese, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, French, and Chinese. The value assigned to represent par for an individual hole is always comprised of two putts plus the number of strokes it should take an expert golfer to reach the green. Holes typically are listed as par-3, par-4 or par-5, although par-6 is also occasionally encountered. A par-4 hole is going to be longer than a par-3 hole, and a par-5 longer than a par-4 (with rare exceptions).

Remember the episode we did about Porsche’s all-new electric sports car, the Taycan? They’re betting that most of their customers will find the electric Porsche to be on par with the traditional Boxter or 911. Some purists that like to shift their own gears and hear the roar of the engine won’t be impressed. They won’t ever think an electric vehicle is on par with Porsche’s traditional cars. But Porsche is betting those people are in the minority.

Kids Definition

This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. We were talking about the discovery of oil in Guyana. I said that this discovery could put Guyana, which is now South America’s second-poorest country, on par with regional leaders like Chile and Uruguay. In this part of the lesson, we were talking about GDP per person, a common measure of how well-developed an economy is. Some estimates said their GDP per person could triple.

• If you are writing for someone in the States, “on par with” is the best choice.
• This is the meaning, I would speculate, that became used in golf circa 1898.
• “(The quality of) H/his cooking skill(s) is/are par with professional chefs.
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• The value assigned to represent par for an individual hole is always comprised of two putts plus the number of strokes it should take an expert golfer to reach the green.

Although most people would be inclined to assume this idiom originated from the sport of golf like other par phrases that exist, “on par” is different. The word “par” dates back to the 16th century where the word was defined as being “something equal to something else.” The first record of the phrase appearing in writing occurred in 1832. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the on par meaning term was used in the sport of golf. These are three cases in which we’re comparing amounts—so in these cases, “on par with” means “about equal to.” There is another way of using “on par with” and that is to describe quality. In golf, “par” is the number of strokes an expert golfer is expected to need to complete an individual hole, or to complete all the holes on a golf course.