Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement.
- n. A group of leaders or officeholders selected on the basis of individual ability or achievement.
- n. Leadership by such a group.
Wiktionary
- n. Rule by merit, and talent. By extension, now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects.
- n. The belief that rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their wealth or birth.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the belief that rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their wealth or birth
- n. a form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects
Etymologies
- merit, from Latin mereō ("earn") + -cracy, from Ancient Greek κράτος (kratos, "strength, power"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Firstly, the term meritocracy has been redefined since it was originally conceived, and is now taken to be a positive term.”
“My late father, the sociologist Michael Young, coined the word "meritocracy" - but as a term of opprobrium rather than approval.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph
“An attempt at a meritocracy is a step forward from wholesale exclusion based on race and culture.”
Special Guest Post: Zetta Elliott on the Myth of Meritocracy
“But if the meritocracy is a myth, it doesn't exist ... and I think it does, though quite imperfectly.”
Special Guest Post: Zetta Elliott on the Myth of Meritocracy
“So why are some people taking certain percentages in certain groups to be signs of total oppression and evidence that the meritocracy is a sham?”
“This myth of meritocracy is so entrenched that very few are aware of it.”
“I think baseball's meritocracy is one of its most admirable features even now as, in our larger country, we demonize the contributions of the very immigrant groups that baseball has wholly embraced.”
“A meritocracy is the backbone of any successful institution; performance -- both individual and organizational -- is doomed without one.”
The Washington Post: Wall Street's record-breaking paystubs: Pay for performance? Really?
“The stick of meritocracy is only valid till the extent wherein employees of these companies can have a sincere belief that its not a pure political game.”
A Theory of Investment Banking, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“You're suggesting that giving up on the myth of meritocracy is different from giving up on a meritocracy.”
Special Guest Post: Zetta Elliott on the Myth of Meritocracy
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘meritocracy’.
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Fruits of Linguistic Invention
bananosecond, fruitylicious, appled, kiwiclock, boomorange, damsonic, pearforate, graspberry, squince, datelier, caroberate, plumpire and 143 more...
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
multiloculate, multilocation, multiflorous, multifid, multifarious, multicipital, multeity, multarticulate, multanimous, mulse, mullock, mullion and 898 more...
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POL - elections
announcement of c..., campaign headquar..., campaign season, campaign staff, campaign strategy, campaign tactic, campaign team, campaign trail, campaigning, candidate, candidate registr..., caucus and 930 more...
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EN - newSPEAK
Buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 1076 more...
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Forms of government
tyranny, tribal, totalitarianism, timocracy, theocracy, thallassocracy, cyberocracy, technocracy, sociocracy, socialist state, republic, puppet state and 37 more...
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-cracy
denoting a form of government or rule
democracy, autocracy, meritocracy, plutocracy, theocracy, gynecocracy, hagiocracy, bureaucracy, isocracy, idiocracy, kakistocracy
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Words for the Modern Man
A list of words and phrases for those who are not all too familiar with the 21st century.
3G, 4G, affluenza, agritourism, auto-tune, burkini, buzz, captcha, chatroom, cloud, content farm, dramedy and 21 more...
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Forms of Government
A handful of -ocracies.
adhocracy, androcracy, aristocracy, autocracy, cleptocracy, corpocracy, democracy, ethnocracy, gerontocracy, gynecocracy, gyneocracy, gynocracy and 31 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
zanshin's Words
gargoyle, ennui, paradigm, aardvark, verisimilitude, ghoti, tenacity, nescience, guillemet, squonk, maven, moxie and 210 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 2: More Common
pilgrim, indubitably, incorrigible, bombastic, histrionics, depredation, perspicuity, discombobulate, peregrination, ambulatory, redux, fractious and 164 more...
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dyy's Words
ambivalence, irony, double-edged sword, paradox, struggle, plunge, buoy, pigeon-hole, ultimately, status quo, fuel, undermine and 230 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
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envelopingshadow's Words
denouement, kitsch, acrimonious, macabre, anachronism, atavism, ennui, parse, lugubrious, holism, brusque, commiserate and 164 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for meritocracy.
alguien I can think of many areas of society where a meritocracy is desperately needed. Mar 28, 2007
dudu a social system that give other people opportunities, advantage and chance based on their skills and abilitites rather than their credibility, seniority or wealth. Dec 10, 2006