meritorious
/ˌmɛɹɪˈtɔɹi.əs/
"meritorious" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meritorious” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,738 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #29,738
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Deserving of merit or commendation; deserving reward.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | meritorious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌmɛɹɪˈtɔɹi.əs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #29,738 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “meritorious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for meritorious is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌmɛɹɪˈtɔɹi.əs/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,738 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Deserving of merit or commendation; deserving reward.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for meritorious, with forms such as "emritorious", "meirtorious", and "meriotrious". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English meritorious, borrowed between 1375 and 1425 from Latin meritōrius (“earning money”), from meritus, past participle of mereō (“to earn”). The correct English form is meritorious, spelled M-E-R-I-T-O-R-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Deserving of merit or commendation; deserving reward.
Etymology
From Middle English meritorious, borrowed between 1375 and 1425 from Latin meritōrius (“earning money”), from meritus, past participle of mereō (“to earn”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emritorious,meirtorious,meriotrious,meritoirous,meritoriosu,meritoriouss,meritoriuos,meritoroius,meritorrious,meritroious,merittorious,merritorious,mertiorious,mmeritorious,mreitorious
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meritorious - 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.
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 "meritorious"?
What does "meritorious" mean?
What are common misspellings of "meritorious"?
How do you pronounce "meritorious"?
What is the origin of the word "meritorious"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “meritorious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-R-I-T-O-R-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌmɛɹɪˈtɔɹi.əs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.