Title: determination
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - determination
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08018
Status: current

Definition
Set of operations that are carried out on an object in order to provide qualitative or quantitative information about this object.

Notes
1) "Determination" is a term in general usage and often implies a human decision.
2) "Determination" is a superordinate concept of measurement and examination, and so, the term "determination" should not be used when "measurement" or "examination" applies.
3) ISO 9000 defines determination as "activity to find out one or more characteristics and their characteristic values".

Related Term
- testing: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08049

Source
- PAC, 2021, 93, 997. 'Metrological and quality concepts in analytical chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 1005 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0819)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08018/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08018/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08018/xml

Citation: Citation: 'determination' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08018
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Accessed: 2026-04-18T19:04:08+00:00