Merit vs Virtue - What's the difference?
merit | virtue |
Something deserving positive recognition.
Something worthy of a high rating.
A claim to commendation or reward.
The quality of deserving reward.
* Shakespeare
* Alexander Pope
Reward deserved; any mark or token of excellence or approbation.
* Prior
(obsolete) The quality or state of deserving either good or bad; desert.
* Shakespeare
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.
(obsolete) The inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being.
The inherent power or efficacy of something (now only in phrases).
* 2011 , "The autumn of the patriarchs", The Economist , 17 Feb 2011:
(uncountable) Accordance with moral principles; conformity of behaviour or thought with the strictures of morality; good moral conduct.
* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , XV.1:
A particular manifestation of moral excellence in a person; an admirable quality.
* 1766 , Laurence Sterne, Sermon XLIV:
Specifically, each of several qualities held to be particularly important, including the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues, or the seven virtues opposed to the seven deadly sins.
* 1813 , John Fleetwood, The Life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ :
An inherently advantageous or excellent quality of something or someone; a favourable point, an advantage.
* 1719 , :
* 2011 , The Guardian , Letter, 14 Mar 2011
A creature embodying divine power, specifically one of the orders of heavenly beings, traditionally ranked above angels and below archangels.
* 1667 , John Milton, Paradise Lost , Book X:
(uncountable) Specifically, moral conduct in sexual behaviour, especially of women; chastity.
* 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice :
In obsolete terms the difference between merit and virtue
is that merit is the quality or state of deserving either good or bad; desert while virtue is the inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being.As nouns the difference between merit and virtue
is that merit is something deserving positive recognition while virtue is the inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being.As a verb merit
is to earn or to deserve.merit
English
Noun
(en noun)- His reward for his merit was a check for $50.
- Reputation is oft got without merit , and lost without deserving.
- To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, / And every author's merit , but his own.
- His teacher gave him ten merits .
- those laurel groves, the merits of thy youth
- 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)- (Chapman)
Derived terms
* (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)External links
* * *Anagrams
* ----virtue
English
(wikipedia virtue)Alternative forms
* vertue (archaic)Noun
- many Egyptians still worry that the Brotherhood, by virtue of discipline and experience, would hold an unfair advantage if elections were held too soon.
- There are a set of religious, or rather moral, writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world.
- Some men are modest, and seem to take pains to hide their virtues ; and, from a natural distance and reserve in their tempers, scarce suffer their good qualities to be known [...].
- The divine virtues of truth and equity are the only bands of friendship, the only supports of society.
- There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out.
- One virtue of the present coalition government's attack on access to education could be to reopen the questions raised so pertinently by Robinson in the 1960s [...].
- Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues , Powers; / For in possession such, not only of right, / I call ye, and declare ye now [...].
- though she did not suppose Lydia to be deliberately engaging in an elopement without the intention of marriage, she had no difficulty in believing that neither her virtue nor her understanding would preserve her from falling an easy prey.