different between merit vs rank

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

Translingual

Symbol

rank

1. (mathematics) The symbol for rank.

English

Alternative forms

• ranck (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?re?- (“straight, direct”). Cognate with Dutch rank (“slender, slim”), Low German rank (“slender, projecting, lank”), Danish rank (“straight, erect, slender”), Swedish rank (“slender, shaky, wonky”), Icelandic rakkur (“straight, slender, bold, valiant”).

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank)

1. Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter (used of negative things).
2. Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

   • And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
3. Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
4. Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
5. Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
6. Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.

   Synonyms: stinky, smelly, (UK) pong

   • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist

     Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.

7. Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).

   Synonyms: complete, utter
8. (informal) Gross, disgusting.
9. (obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
10. (obsolete) lustful; lascivious

Derived terms

• ranken
• rankful

Translations

Adverb

rank (comparative more rank, superlative most rank)

1. (obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:

     The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke, / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare [...].

   • That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.

Etymology 2

From Middle English rank (“line, row”), from Old French ranc, rang, reng (“line, row, rank”) (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“something bent or curved”).

Akin to Old High German (h)ring, Old Frisian hring, Old English hring, hrincg (“ring”) (Modern English ring), Old Norse hringr (“ring, circle, queue, sword; ship”). More at ring.

Noun

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

1. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.

   Antonym: file

   The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.
2. (chess) One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).

   Antonym: file

3. (music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
4. One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality.

   Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.

   The fancy hotel was of the first rank.

6. The level of one's position in a class-based society.
7. (typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.

   a membership drawn from the ranks of wealthy European businessmen
9. A hierarchical level in an organization such as the military.

   Private First Class (PFC) is the second-lowest rank in the Marines.

   He rose up through the ranks of the company, from mailroom clerk to CEO.

10. (taxonomy) A level in a scientific taxonomy system.

    Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

11. (mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
13. (linear algebra) The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
14. (algebra) The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).
15. (mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.

Derived terms

• break rank
• cab off the rank
• cab rank
• cab-rank rule
• close ranks
• pull rank
• taxi rank

Translations

Verb

rank (third-person singular simple present ranks, present participle ranking, simple past and past participle ranked)

1. To place abreast, or in a line.
2. To have a ranking.

   Their defense ranked third in the league.

3. To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

     Ranking all things under general and special heads.

   • 1726, William Broome, The Odyssey (by Homer)

     Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.

   • 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety

     Heresy [is] ranked with idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, murders, and other sins of the flesh.

4. (US) To take rank of; to outrank.

Derived terms

• misrank
• outrank

Translations

References

• rank at OneLook Dictionary Search
• rank in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ARNK, Karn, karn, knar, kran, nark

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r??k/
• Hyphenation: rank
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch ranc, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker, superlative rankst)

1. slender, svelte

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch ranc, ranke, from Old Dutch *rank, from Frankish hranca.

Noun

rank f (plural ranken, diminutive rankje n)

1. tendril, a thin winding stem

Anagrams

• karn

References

German

Etymology

From Middle Low German rank, ranc, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?k/

Adjective

rank (comparative ranker, superlative am ranksten)

1. (poetic, dated, except in the phrase rank und schlank) lithe, lissome

Declension

Related terms

• rahn

Verb

rank

1. singular imperative of ranken

Further reading

• “rank” in Duden online