A metaphorical meaning of "gold standard" is something that is really good to be compared with. For example, Wiktionary says
- (idiomatic) A test or measure of comparison that is considered ultimate or ideal.
The OED is the gold standard for English dictionaries. Everyone wants to see how their version measures up to that ideal.
Is there an example of a benchmark of awfulness, such that if something is worse than item X, then it is very bad?
An example of how this would be used is
Recently, Kazakhstan has become the _____ for backwardness, with news articles saying that Australia's education system or internet speed is worse than Kazakstan's.
Neither Oxford Dictionaries, the gold standard in dictionaries, nor Wiktionary mentions any antonyms.
Best Answer
Lead Standard
Recently the term lead standard has been used to contrast with gold standard. For example, the authors of a 2015 Queensland Times article, “Integration, assimilation should be gold standard”, write:
In this syndicated 2017 article from Raycom News Network, “Lee Zurik Investigation: Gold standard for ethics, lead standard for enforcement”, then-State Treasurer John Kennedy is quoted saying:
In this 2013 article on “Screening for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Primary Care” from the US Department of Veterans Affairs we read:
Other recent examples of lead standard in this sense can be found here and there, but the term is still far more commonly seen in discussions of safety standards for lead-exposure limits. You’re therefore probably safest using it only in contexts that also mention gold standard, like in this statistics quiz.