Criteria or criterion?
criteria is the plural of criterion. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) criteria is about 5.6 times as common as criterion.
What is the difference between criteria and criterion?
| criteria | criterion | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | plural of criterion | A standard, test, or requirement by which individual things or people may be compared and judged; a gauge |
| Example | For quotations using this term, see Citations:criteria | Near-synonym: benchmark |
| Forms | none | criteria |
| Pronunciation | /kɹaɪˈtɪə.ɹi.ə/ [kɹaɪ̯ˈtɪə̯.ɹi.ə] /kɹaɪˈtɪɹ.i.ə/ | /kɹɪˈtɪəɹi.ən/ /kɹaɪˈtɪə.ɹi.ən/ /kɹaɪˈtɪɹ.i.ən/ |
| In writing | 16 times per million words | 2.9 times per million words |
Sources: criteria and criterion in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of criteria and criterion
criterion
- 1
A standard, test, or requirement by which individual things or people may be compared and judged; a gauge
Near-synonym: benchmark
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, criteria or criterion?
criteria appears 16 times per million words; criterion 2.9 times per million words.
criteria 16 times per million wordscriterion 2.9 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search criteria vs criterion?
“criteria vs criterion” is searched about 8,100 times a month on Google and 610 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“criterion vs criteria”, “criteria or criterion”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.