Past tense of merit
regular verb
The past tense of merit is merited. The past participle is also merited.
Forms of merit
| Base form (V1) | merit /ˈmɛɹɪt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | merited |
| Past participle (V3) | merited |
| Present participle | meriting |
| Third person singular | merits /ˈmɛɹ.ɪts/ |
Merited in a sentence
- Her performance merited wild applause.
- “What I’m looking for,” he barked, “is to be left in peace.” His voice trembled with a rage far bigger than her intrusion merited, the rage which shocked him whenever it coursed through his nervous system, like a flood.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5
- Some of it is merited, and for some of it, they were swiftboated.2013 January 7, Sam Thielman, “The Man From Oz Finds Religion”, in Adweek. From the entry swiftboat
- The UK, for example, believed that its wider trading links merited special consideration.1997, Christopher Preston, “Conclusion: Can the Classical Method Survive?”, in Enlargement and Integration in the European Union, London…. From the entry acquis
- For Scotland, who produced the best of what cohesive football there was on the night, it was a merited outcome.2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman. From the entry cohesive
Meaning of merit
- noun A claim to commendation or a reward.
- noun A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.
- noun Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.
Questions about the past tense of merit
- What is the past tense of merit?
- The past tense of merit is merited.
- What is the past participle of merit?
- The past participle of merit is merited.
- Is merit a regular or irregular verb?
- Merit is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: merit (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of merit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/merit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.