merit

noun

(countable, uncountable) Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.

(countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.

(countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.

(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.

(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.

(countable, obsolete) The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.

verb

(transitive) To deserve, to earn.

(intransitive) To be deserving or worthy.

(transitive, obsolete, rare) To reward.

Roots

meritummerit- · Latin · deserved, earned

Synonyms for merit

deservev virtuen worthinessn rewardn worthadj excellencen considerationn recompensen

Synonyms & related words for merit

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of merit — including deserve, virtue, worthiness, reward, worth, excellence. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to merit

Explore words related to merit — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include meritoriousness, unmeriting, meritorious, praiseworthiness, meritoriously, deservingly, laudability, meritless. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for merit

Common synonyms for merit include deserve, virtue, worthiness, reward, worth, excellence, consideration, recompense — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does merit come from?

The word merit breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root merit-, from Latin meritum (“deserved, earned”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.