comparator

plural comparators

1. Any of various devices for comparing a physical property of two objects, or an object with a standard.

   optical comparator

2. An electronic device that compares two voltages, currents or streams of data.

   digital comparator

   1 more example

   electrical comparator

3. lawAnything that serves as a comparison.
4. medicineA thing being compared against in the PICO process; often, a diagnostic method or a treatment being compared against another.

   2 more examples

   The applicant is therefore complaining not of a lack of action but rather of the decision of the local authority to reduce the care package that it had hitherto been making available to her. As such, a more appropriate comparator would be the case of Watts v. The United Kingdom (dec.), no. 53586/09 of 4 May 2010, in which the Court was content to proceed on the basis that a decision to close the care home where the elderly applicant was resident and to transfer her to another home constituted an interference with her rights under Article 8.

   2014 May 20, European Court of Human Rights, McDonald v. The United Kingdom, number 4241/12, marginal 48

   Roxanne Khazarian (“Plaintiff”) moved to compel discovery from Gerald Metals, LLC and Metals Trading Corp (“Defendants”), seeking the personnel file of Gary Lerner, an employee of Defendants. […] Defendants object to the production of these documents on the grounds that Mr. Lerner is not an appropriate comparator for Ms. Khazarian and his personnel file is therefore irrelevant.

   2017 September 11, United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Roxanne Khazarian vs. Gerald Metals, LLC, Metals Trading Corp., Gerald Holdings, LLC, Craig Dean, and Dan Gamez, numbers 3:16-cv-01762(VAB)

5. computingAn application or program that compares prices, rates, tariffs of flights, smartphones, cars, etc.