meritorious

adjective

mer·​i·​to·​ri·​ous ˌmer-ə-ˈtȯr-ē-əs How to pronounce meritorious (audio)
: deserving of honor or esteem
honored for her meritorious service to the company
meritoriously adverb
meritoriousness noun

Did you know?

People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly "earn" our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious comes from the Latin verb merēre, which means "to earn." Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature: gratitude, admiration, praise, etc. But that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: money. In Latin, meritorious literally means "bringing in money."

Examples of meritorious in a Sentence

She was given an award for meritorious service. worked all night with meritorious determination to get the project done on time
Recent Examples on the Web Such medals are coveted in the journalism industry and given to a newspaper rather than an individual for meritorious reporting that serves the public good, according to the prizes’ organizers. Sacramento Bee, 21 Feb. 2024 Doherty was in the Battle of Dak To and received a Bronze Star for meritorious service in combat. Jeff Suess, The Enquirer, 17 Jan. 2024 All that said, though, meritorious impeachment is not impossible. Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 30 Dec. 2023 Failure to communicate with the complainant on these matters will create a feeling of futility on the part of complainants and organizations representing complainants that will discourage the filing of meritorious complaints. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 8 Nov. 2023 Gaetz, like Trump, ignited the imagination of some of the GOP base, which sees such disruption as meritorious and evidence of a fight on the little guys’ behalf. Philip Elliott, TIME, 4 Oct. 2023 Following Twombly, that number rose to 78 percent, but pretrial dismissal rates also dropped from 88 percent to 82 percent, demonstrating that heightened burdens of proof are not necessarily preventing meritorious cases from being heard. Ryan Yonk, National Review, 13 Sep. 2023 Stop fighting meritorious whistleblowers The law creating the IRS whistleblower program gives whistleblowers the right to appeal the IRS’s determination over whether and how much of an award the whistleblower should receive. Chris McLamb, Fortune, 9 June 2023 The intent and the consequence are determinative of what is meritorious. Abc News, ABC News, 30 June 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'meritorious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of meritorious was in the 15th century

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Dictionary Entries Near meritorious

Cite this Entry

“Meritorious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meritorious. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

meritorious

adjective
mer·​i·​to·​ri·​ous ˌmer-ə-ˈtōr-ē-əs How to pronounce meritorious (audio)
-ˈtȯr-
: deserving reward or honor : praiseworthy
meritoriously adverb
meritoriousness noun

Legal Definition

meritorious

adjective
mer·​i·​to·​ri·​ous ˌmer-ə-ˈtōr-ē-əs How to pronounce meritorious (audio)
1
: deserving of honor or esteem
2
: having merit
a meritorious claim

More from Merriam-Webster on meritorious

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