Meritorious is a formal adjective used to describe something that is deserving of honor, praise, or esteem.

// She was honored for her meritorious service to the city.

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"The Air Medal is awarded to anyone who distinguishes themselves through meritorious achievement while flying." — Rick Mauch, The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, 6 Mar. 2025

People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly earn our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious has its roots in the Latin verb merēre, which means "to earn." (Merēre is also the source of the English noun and verb merit.) Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature—gratitude, admiration, praise, etc.—but that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: cold, hard cash. In Latin, meritorious literally means "bringing in money."