merit
/ˈmɛɹɪt/ noun, verb
Forms merits meriting merited meritest meritedst meriteth
- noun (countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.
- noun (countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence. “For her good performance in the examination, her teacher gave her ten merits.”
- noun (countable, uncountable) Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward. “His reward for his merit was a check for $50.”
- noun (uncountable, Buddhism, Jainism) The sum of all the good deeds that a person does which determines the quality of the person's next state of existence and contributes to the person's growth towards enlightenment. “to acquire or make merit”
- noun (uncountable, law) Usually in the plural form the merits: the substantive rightness or wrongness of a legal argument, a lawsuit, etc., as opposed to technical matters such as the admissibility of evidence or points of legal procedure; (by extension) the overall good or bad quality, or rightness or wrongness, of some other thing. “Even though the plaintiff was ordered by the judge to pay some costs for not having followed the correct procedure, she won the case on the merits.”
- noun (countable, obsolete) The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.
- verb (transitive) To deserve, to earn. “Her performance merited wild applause.”
- verb (intransitive) To be deserving or worthy. “They were punished as they merited.”
- verb (transitive, obsolete, rare) To reward.
Synonyms
excellence value worth bear virtue deservingness meritoriousness deserve
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English merit, merite (“quality of person’s character or conduct deserving of reward or punishment; such reward or punishment; excellence, worthiness; benefit; right to be rewarded for spiritual service; retribution at doomsday; virtue through which Jesus Christ brings about salvation; virtue possessed by a holy person; power of a pagan deity”), from Anglo-Norman merit, merite, Old French merite (“moral worth, reward; merit”) (modern French mérite), from Latin meritum (“that which one deserves, deserts; benefit, reward, merit; service; kindness; importance, value, worth; blame, demerit, fault; grounds, reason”), neuter of meritus (“deserved, earned, obtained; due, proper, right; deserving, meritorious”), perfect passive participle of mereō (“to deserve, earn, obtain, merit; to earn a living”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to allot, assign”). The English word is probably cognate with Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “component, part; portion, share; destiny, fate, lot”) and cognate with Old Occitan merit.
From Middle English meriten, from Middle French meriter, Old French meriter (“to deserve, merit”) (modern French mériter), from merite: see further in Etymology 1. The word is cognate with Italian meritare (“to deserve, merit; to be worth; to earn”), Latin meritāre (“to earn regularly; to serve as a soldier”), Spanish meritar (“to deserve, merit; to earn”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The quality or state of deserving well or ill; desert.
- noun Esp. in a good sense: The quality or state of deserving well; worth; excellence.
- verb To earn by service or performance; to have a right to claim as reward; to deserve; sometimes, to deserve in a bad sense; as, to merit punishment. "This kindness merits thanks." Shak.
- verb To reward. [R. & Obs.] Chapman.
Etymology [F. mérite, L. meritum, fr. merere, mereri, to deserve, merit; prob. originally, to get a share; akin to Gr. Market, Merchant, Mercer, Mercy.]
Etymology [F. mériter, L. meritare, v. intens. fr. merere. See Merit, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “merit”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details