This Guide provides general terms and definitions concerning standardization and related activities. It is intended to contribute fundamentally towards mutual understanding amongst the members of ISO and IEC and the various governmental and nongovernmental agencies involved in standardization at international, regional and national levels. It is intended also to provide a suitable source for teaching and for reference, briefly covering basic theoretical and practical principles of standardization, certification and laboratory accreditation.

It is not the aim of this Guide to duplicate definitions of terms adequately defined for general purposes in other authoritative international vocabularies.

NOTE 1 From this point of view, particular attention is drawn to the International vocabulary of basic and general terms in metrology (VIM) jointly prepared by ISO, IEC, BIPM, IFCC, IUPAC, IUPAP and OIML, and published in 1993 (second edition).

NOTE 2 In addition to the terms given in the official languages of ISO and IEC (English, French and Russian), equivalent terms provided by the relevant member bodies are given in the following languages:

— German (de);

— Spanish (es);

— Italian (it);

— Dutch (nl);

— Swedish (sv).