Meaning of merit in English | Powered by Free Dictionary API

noun

• A claim to commendation or a reward.

• A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.

  Example: For her good performance in the examination, her teacher gave her ten merits.

• Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.

  Example: His reward for his merit was a check for $50.

• 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.

  Example: to acquire or make merit

• 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.

  Example: 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.

• The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.

verb

• To deserve, to earn.

  Example: Her performance merited wild applause.

• To be deserving or worthy.

  Example: They were punished as they merited.

• To reward.