Earn vs. Merit — What's the Difference?

Obtain (money) in return for labour or services

Superior quality or worth; excellence

To gain especially for the performance of service, labor, or work

A quality deserving praise or approval; virtue

To acquire or deserve as a result of effort or action

Demonstrated ability or achievement

To yield as return or profit

Often merits An aspect of character or behavior deserving approval or disapproval

(transitive) To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.

In various religions, spiritual credit granted for good works.

(transitive) To receive payment for work.

(Law) The factors to be considered in making a substantive decision in a case, independent of procedural or technical aspects

(intransitive) To receive payment for work.

The factual content of a matter, apart from emotional, contextual, or formal considerations.

(transitive) To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.

To earn; deserve.

(transitive) To achieve by being worthy of.

To be worthy or deserving

To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.

(countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.

Of milk: to curdle, espcially in the cheesemaking process.

(countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.

To strongly long or yearn (for something or to do something).

Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.

To grieve.

The sum of all the good deeds that a person does which determines the quality of the person's next state of existence and contributes to the person's growth towards enlightenment.

To merit or deserve, as by labor or service; to do that which entitles one to (a reward, whether the reward is received or not).

Usually in the plural form the merits: the substantive rightness or wrongness of a legal argument, a lawsuit, etc., as opposed to technical matters such as the admissibility of evidence or points of legal procedure; (by extension) the overall good or bad quality, or rightness or wrongness, of some other thing.

To acquire by labor, service, or performance; to deserve and receive as compensation or wages; as, to earn a good living; to earn honors or laurels.

The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.

To grieve.

(transitive) To deserve, to earn.

To long; to yearn.

(intransitive) To be deserving or worthy.

To curdle, as milk.

To reward.

Earn on some commercial or business transaction; earn as salary or wages;

The quality or state of deserving well or ill; desert.

Acquire or deserve by one's efforts or actions

The quality or state of deserving well; worth; excellence.

Reward deserved; any mark or token of excellence or approbation; as, his teacher gave him ten merits.

To earn by service or performance; to have a right to claim as reward; to deserve; sometimes, to deserve in a bad sense; as, to merit punishment.

To reward.

To acquire desert; to gain value; to receive benefit; to profit.

Any admirable quality or attribute;

The quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance);

Be worthy or deserving;