merit
n. C / Un. the quality of being good or useful. If something has merit, it deserves praise or attention because it is high quality.
n. the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward. Often used in professional or academic contexts to describe the intrinsic value of an idea or person.
The committee will judge each application on its own merit.
The promotion was based entirely on professional merit rather than how long the employee had worked there.
While the proposal was initially dismissed for its high cost, several board members argued that its long-term environmental merit justified the investment.
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 French merite (“moral worth, reward; merit”) (modern French mérite), from Latin meritum (“that which one deserves, deserts; benefit, reward, merit; service; kindness; importance, value, worth; blame, demerit, fault; grounds, reason”), neuter of meritus (“deserved, earned, obtained; due, proper, right; deserving, meritorious”), perfect passive participle of mereō (“to deserve, earn, obtain, merit; to earn a living”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to allot, assign”). The English word is probably cognate with Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “component, part; portion, share; destiny, fate, lot”) and cognate with Old Occitan merit.
From Middle English meriten, from Middle French meriter, Old French meriter (“to deserve, merit”) (modern French mériter), from merite: see further in Etymology 1. The word is cognate with Italian meritare (“to deserve, merit; to be worth; to earn”), Latin meritāre (“to earn regularly; to serve as a soldier”), Spanish meritar (“to deserve, merit; to earn”).
Often used in the plural ('merits') when discussing the various advantages and disadvantages of a case or plan.