A Merit
- (countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.
- (countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence. Antonym: demerit
- (countable, uncountable) Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.
Synonyms: excellence, value, worth
Antonym: demerit
- (uncountable, Buddhism, Jainism) 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.
- (uncountable, law) 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.
- (countable, obsolete) The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.