Standard drink

Standard drink: A reference serving containing a fixed amount of pure alcohol (14 grams in the United States), used to compare drinks of different type and size on a common basis. The BAC Calculator defines this alongside 1 other term: that calculator itself is built to estimate blood alcohol concentration from drinks, body weight and elapsed time using the widmark formula. See Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for its full worked example and sensitivity breakdown. In the clinical estimates vocabulary, standard drink is usually read alongside blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which are defined below.

Getting standard drink wrong almost always traces back to an input instead of the arithmetic, so check each figure against a statement, disclosure or official estimate before you rely on the result.