MERIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does merit mean? 

• MERIT (noun)
  The noun MERIT has 2 senses:

1. any admirable quality or attribute

2. the quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance)

  Familiarity information: MERIT used as a noun is rare.

• MERIT (verb)
  The verb MERIT has 1 sense:

1. be worthy or deserving

  Familiarity information: MERIT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MERIT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any admirable quality or attribute

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

merit; virtue

Context example:

work of great merit

Hypernyms ("merit" is a kind of...):

worth (the quality that renders something desirable or valuable or useful)

Antonym:

demerit (the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

deservingness; merit; meritoriousness

Context example:

there were many children whose deservingness he recognized and rewarded

Hypernyms ("merit" is a kind of...):

worthiness (the quality or state of having merit or value)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "merit"):

desert ((usually plural) a person's deservingness of or entitlement to reward or punishment)

Derivation:

merit (be worthy or deserving)

meritorious (deserving reward or praise)

• MERIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they merit    ... he / she / it merits   
Past simple: merited   
Past participle: merited   
-ing form: meriting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be worthy or deserving

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

deserve; merit

Context example:

You deserve a promotion after all the hard work you have done

Hypernyms (to "merit" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "merit"):

have it coming (deserve (either good or bad))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

merit (the quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance))

meritable (deserving reward or praise)

 Context examples 

She thought it would be an excellent match; and only too palpably desirable, natural, and probable, for her to have much merit in planning it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

To yield readily—easily—to the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I may claim the merit of having originated the suggestion that the will should be looked for in the box.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Vaccine testing in patients with advanced colon cancer merits further investigation.

(CancerVax, NCI Thesaurus)

His own merits must soon secure it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This brief description is all that Endeavour Island merits.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

She would not hand him a stereotyped rejection slip, nor would she inform him that lack of preference for his work did not necessarily imply lack of merit in his work.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And now—what had she done, or what had she omitted to do, to merit such a change?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A center within the National Institutes of Health that acts as a portal for grant applications and their review for scientific merit.

(Center for Scientific Review, NCI Thesaurus)