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
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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Topical
The buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 734 more...
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Fruits of Linguistic Invention
bananosecond, fruitylicious, appled, kiwiclock, boomorange, damsonic, pearforate, graspberry, squince, datelier, caroberate, plumpire and 127 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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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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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...
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