merit
Pronunciation: /ˈmɛɹɪt/
The English word “merit” has 9 meanings listed here.
noun
- A claim to commendation or a reward.
- A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.
- Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.
- 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.
- 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.
- The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.
verb
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…
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More English words
- meristics
- meristoderm
- meristogenetic
- meristogenous
- merit badge
- merit badge college
- merit badge university
- merit badger
About this dictionary
The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.
Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.