Which to use
“merit” is a noun and “merited” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,267
- “merit” frequency rank
- #40,337
- “merited” frequency rank
- 46604
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | merit | merited |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A claim to commendation or a reward. | deserved |
Letter map: merit vs merited
Shared letters muted; letters that set merit and merited apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. merit runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against merited's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - merit and merited
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: merit is anoun and meritedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “merit” sits inside “merited”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
merit is recorded at frequency rank #6,267, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛɹɪt/. merited is at rank #40,337, tagged as anadj.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 46604, this pair ranks #210,200 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of merit vs merited
Shared letters: eimrt. Private to "merit": -. Private to "merited": d.
"merit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "merited" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "merit" and "merited" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "merit" or "merited"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "merit" and "merited". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "merit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merited" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,200 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "merit" and "merited" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Merced vs merited". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #210,200 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.