meritocracy

plural meritocracies

1. countableuncountableRule by merit and talent.

   As a small nation without natural resources, Singapore relies on education and meritocracy to develop its economy.

   3 more examples

   In Markovits’s telling, the rise of the meritocracy is a story of unintended consequences.

   2019 September 5, Sarah Leonard, “The Fall of the Meritocracy”, in The New Republic, archived from the original on 07 Sep 2019

   Its faculty has also been a factory of books taking differing positions on the merits and demerits of meritocracy and elite education.

   2019 September 9, Jennifer Schuessler, “The Meritocrat Who Wants to Unwind the Meritocracy”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2019

   In April, six months after Amazon began a wave of layoffs that ultimately wiped out 30,000 jobs, a former employee went on the social media site Blind to rant about the end of meritocracy: “What’s the point of getting a good performance review if you can still be laid off anyway?”

   2026 May 19, Noam Scheiber, “The Morale of Tech Workers Is Plunging as Layoffs Mount”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Antonyms: nepotism

2. countableuncountableA type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.