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Merit vs Reputation - What's the difference?

merit | reputation | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between merit and reputation

is that merit is something deserving positive recognition while reputation is what somebody is known for.

As a verb merit

is to earn or to deserve.

merit

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Something deserving positive recognition.
  • His reward for his merit was a check for $50.
  • Something worthy of a high rating.
  • A claim to commendation or reward.
  • The quality of deserving reward.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Reputation is oft got without merit , and lost without deserving.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, / And every author's merit , but his own.
  • Reward deserved; any mark or token of excellence or approbation.
  • His teacher gave him ten merits .
  • * Prior
  • those laurel groves, the merits of thy youth
  • (obsolete) The quality or state of deserving either good or bad; desert.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought / For things that others do; and when we fall, / We answer others' merits in our name.

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l)

    Antonyms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To earn or to deserve.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited .}}
  • To be worthy or deserving.
  • (obsolete, rare) To reward.
  • (Chapman)

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    reputation

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • What somebody is known for.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1529 , author=John Frith , by= , title=A pistle to the Christen reader. The Revelation of Antichrist: Antithesis, citation , chapter= , isbn= , publisher=Luft [i.e. Hoochstraten] , location= , editor= , volume_plain= , page=117 , passage=And Balaam (or as the trueth of the hebrewe hath Bileam) doth signifie the people of no reputation / or the vayne people or they that are not counted for people. }}

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "reputation": good, great, excellent, bad, stellar, tarnished, evil, damaged, dubious, spotless, terrible, ruined, horrible, lost, literary, corporate, global, personal, academic, scientific, posthumous, moral, artistic.

    Synonyms

    * name

    Derived terms

    * reputational