The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide, voluntary, nongovernmental, non-treaty federation of national standards organizations from some 140 countries that sets international technical standards. For example, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the United States's representative to the ISO, while the British Standards Institution (BSI) is Britain's ISO representative. Western industrial countries usually set up private organizations for their representatives, but in most other countries a governmental organization is used. In all cases each body is that country's leading standard-setting organization.

"ISO" is actually not an acronym but is derived from the Greek word isos, meaning "equal"; it was selected as the basis of the organization's name because it appears in such terms as "isometric" (of equal measure) and "isonomy" (equality of laws). The term ISO is often inaccurately translated as "International Standards Organization."

International standardization started in...