different between achieve vs merit

English

Alternative forms

• atchieve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English achieven, acheven, from Anglo-Norman achever, Old French achever, achiever et al., apparently from Late Latin *accapp?re, present active infinitive of *accapp?, from ad (“to”) + caput (“head”) + -? (verbal suffix), or alternatively a construction based on Old French chief (“head”). Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish acabar, French achever.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??t?i?v/
• Rhymes: -i?v

Verb

achieve (third-person singular simple present achieves, present participle achieving, simple past and past participle achieved)

1. (intransitive) To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance. [from 14th c.]
2. (transitive) To carry out successfully; to accomplish. [from 14th c.]
   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     Supposing faculties and powers to be the same, far more may be achieved in any line by the aid of a capital, invigorating motive than without it.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To conclude, finish, especially successfully. [14th-18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve […]

4. (transitive) To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win. [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1601-1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II-v

     Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
5. (obsolete, intransitive) To conclude, to turn out. [14th-16th c.]
6. (transitive, now literary) To obtain (a material thing). [from 15th c.]
   • 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700

   Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.

   • c. 1603-1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, II-i

     He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.

Synonyms

• accomplish, effect, fulfil, fulfill, complete, execute, perform, realize, obtain. See accomplish

Derived terms

• achievable
• achievement
• achiever
• overachieve
• underachieve

Translations

Further reading

• achieve at OneLook Dictionary Search
• achieve in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

The noun is derived 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 mere? (“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 ????? (méros, “component, part; portion, share; destiny, fate, lot”) and cognate with Old Occitan merit.

The verb is derived from Middle French meriter, Old French meriter (“to deserve, merit”) (modern French mériter), from merite: see further above. The word is cognate with Italian meritare (“to deserve, merit; to be worth; to earn”), Latin merit?re (“to earn regularly; to serve as a soldier”), Spanish meritar (“to deserve, merit; to earn”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: m?r??t, IPA^(key): /?m???t/, /?m???t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m???t/, /?m???t/
• Rhymes: -???t
• Hyphenation: me?rit

Noun

merit (countable and uncountable, plural merits)

1. (countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.
2. (countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.

   Antonym: demerit
3. (countable, uncountable) Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.

   Synonyms: excellence, value, worth

   Antonym: demerit
4. (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.
5. (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.
6. (countable, obsolete) The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

merit (third-person singular simple present merits, present participle meriting, simple past and past participle merited)

1. (transitive) To deserve, to earn.
2. (intransitive) To be deserving or worthy.
3. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To reward.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• merit (Buddhism) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• merit (Catholicism) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• merit (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• merit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• merit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• merit at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Terim, ermit, miter, mitre, remit, timer

Ladin

Etymology

From Latin meritum.

Pronunciation

Noun

merit m (plural meric)

1. merit

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?merit]

Etymology 1

From French mérite.

Noun

merit n (plural merite)

1. merit

Declension

Etymology 2

Verb

merit

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of merita