merit
Americannoun
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merits
plural
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claim to respect and praise; excellence; worth.
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something that deserves or justifies a reward or commendation; a commendable quality, act, etc..
The book's only merit is its sincerity.
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merits, the inherent rights and wrongs of a matter, as a lawsuit, unobscured by procedural details, technicalities, personal feelings, etc..
The case will be decided on its merits alone.
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Often merits. the state or fact of deserving; desert.
to treat people according to their merits.
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Roman Catholic Church. worthiness of spiritual reward, acquired by righteous acts made under the influence of grace.
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Obsolete. something that is deserved, whether good or bad.
verb (used with object)
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merits,
present (3rd person singular)
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merited,
past participle, past
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meriting
present participle
verb (used without object)
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merits,
present (3rd person singular)
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merited,
past participle, past
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meriting
present participle
adjective
noun
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worth or superior quality; excellence
work of great merit
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(often plural) a deserving or commendable quality or act
judge him on his merits
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Christianity spiritual credit granted or received for good works
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the fact or state of deserving; desert
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an obsolete word for reward
verb
Synonym Usage
See desert 3.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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self-meritnoun
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overmeritverb
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premeritverb (used with object)
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half-meritedadjective
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meritedadjective
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meritlessadjective
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unmeritedadjective
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well-meritedadjective
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meritedlyadverb
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unmeritedlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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meritsimple
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meritssimple
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have meritedperfect
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has meritedperfect
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am meritingprogressive
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are meritingprogressive
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is meritingprogressive
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have been meritingperfect progressive
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has been meritingperfect progressive
Past
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meritedsimple
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had meritedperfect
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was meritingprogressive
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were meritingprogressive
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had been meritingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of merit
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English, from Latin meritum “act worthy of praise (or blame),” noun use of neuter of meritus, past participle of merēre “to earn”
Explanation
Merit means "worthiness or excellence." If you receive a certificate of merit in school, you are being recognized for doing a good job. As a verb, merit means "deserve." Your certificate might merit a prominent place on your bulletin board! You will often hear the phrases "merit-based promotion" and "merit-based pay," which come up when employees are pushing against a system in which time on the job — and not job performance — determines when workers are promoted and how much they are paid. Using the word merit suggests impartiality and objectivity — such as when you swear off a prejudiced approach to something and vow to "judge it on its merits."
Vocabulary lists containing merit
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Ungifted
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If the performance evaluation is conducted honestly and based on merit, she said, the commission has nothing to fear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
The plaintiffs’ claims “lack scientific merit and were sustained only by unreliable expert opinions that could not survive rigorous judicial review,” Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s global vice president of litigation, said in a statement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Price also averaged 104.97 in the final and has enjoyed a successful week, climbing to fourth in the order of merit and reclaiming the Welsh number one spot from Jonny Clayton.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
“From a technical perspective, both arguments have merit, which in our view makes the next few weeks of price action critical.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
That in itself was of interest to Tree-ear; an ordinary commission—for a set of household bowls, say—would not merit such caution.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
"Judges need reliable scientific information about climate change so that they can evaluate those cases on their merits," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
In response, a Lilly spokesperson said: “Rather than compete on the merits of its products, Novo is asking a court to stop Lilly from communicating the results of that trial.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín scheduled a March 2 trial to decide the merits of an antitrust challenge brought by 12 state attorneys general, led by California Atty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
But federal support was provided on the firm principle that distribution was to be determined by disinterested experts qualified to evaluate the merits of scientific and technological proposals.
From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026
Thereafter never a week went by but she brought news of this boy or that, and she and I and Nathan spent long hours trying to assess their relative merits.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
As a long-term shareholder in both companies, Norges Bank Investment Management said it understood the rationale for a combination and the proposal merited consideration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The referee used the video assistant referee to review the play and determined it merited a red card.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
In the early days, spreads are often wider than merited, and volatility levels are unusually elevated.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
Dujon Sterling's deflected volley had Rangers in front and their overall performance merited such a lead.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
Neither Orellana’s journey nor Carvajal’s account of it received the attention they merited; indeed, Carvajal’s work was not formally published until 1894.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The book’s characters relate their stories in discrete sections that peel back time, revealing shocking secrets and meriting re-evaluation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
The Chicago Fed president acknowledged a reversal in rental and other housing inflation after months of easing was a "negative surprise" meriting a "proper element of caution", according to the report.
From Reuters ● Oct. 16, 2023
"They are accurate enough at this point to start meriting some consideration," he said.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2023
“They are accurate enough at this point to start meriting some consideration,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2023
“A classic tenement meriting the veneration of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings.”
From The Fire Trumpet A Romance of the Cape Frontier by Bertram Mitford
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
