merited

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"merited" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“merited” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #40,337. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#40,337
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - deserved

Corpus desk

Index EN-merited · merited · English

merited · rank #40,337 · 10 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #40,337
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH mesquite

Nearest frequency peer: mesquite (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “merited”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “merited” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

merited vs merits
71% similar
merited vs merit
71% similar
merited vs melted
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for merited
PropertyValue
Headwordmerited
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters7
Frequency rank#40,337
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “merited”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).meritedlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “mesquite” (#40,338), “Metcalfe” (#40,339), “Marconi” (#40,334). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “merited” is #40,337. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around merited, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #40,337 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "deserved".

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for merited, with forms such as "emrited", "meirted", and "merietd". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "merits", "merit", "melted", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is merited, spelled M-E-R-I-T-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    deserved

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how merited appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. It was a merited reward.
  2. Maloney’s moment of magic ensured they did not. For Scotland, who produced the best of what cohesive football there was on the night, it was a merited outcome.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emrited
  • meirted
  • merietd
  • meritde
  • meritedd
  • meritted
  • merrited
  • mertied
  • mmerited
  • mreited

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of merited - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

emrited2meirted2merietd2meritde2meritedd1meritted1merrited1mertied2
Edit distance from "merited"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "merited"?
"merited" is spelled M-E-R-I-T-E-D.
What does "merited" mean?
As an adjective, "merited" means: deserved
What words are commonly confused with "merited"?
"merited" is commonly confused with "merits", "merit", "melted". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "merited" come from?
"merited" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "merited", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Marconi#40,334Nuttall#40,362hydroxy#40,288pleated#40,394

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

loveless10 variantskhyber10 variantsparaffin10 variantsgrowls10 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list