meritocracy
pronunciation
How to pronounce meritocracy in British English:
UK [ˌmerɪˈtɒkrəsi]
How to pronounce meritocracy in American English:
US [ˌmerɪˈtɑkrəsi]
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- Noun:
- a form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects
- the belief that rulers should be chosen for their superior abilities and not because of their wealth or birth
Word Origin
- meritocracy (n.)
- coined 1958 by British sociologist Michael Young (1915-2002) and used in title of his book, "The Rise of the Meritocracy"; from merit (n.) + -cracy. Related: Meritocratic. [Young's book] imagined an elite that got its position not from ancestry, but from test scores and effort. For him, meritocracy was a negative term; his spoof was a warning about the negative consequences of assigning social status based on formal educational qualifications, and showed how excluding from leadership anyone who couldnât jump through the educational hoops would create a new form of discrimination. And thatâs exactly what has happened. [Lani Guinier, interview, "New York Times," Feb. 7, 2015]
Example
- 1. They will wonder if it 's mediocracy or meritocracy .
- 2. To be clear , I 'm a firm believer in the idea of meritocracy .
- 3. Being a meritocracy is one of our core values and it 's on our walls .
- 4. Even the sort of inequality produced by meritocracy can hurt growth .
- 5. The first was the rise of meritocracy in corporate america .