From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmeritocracymer‧i‧toc‧ra‧cy /ˌmerəˈtɒkrəsi $ -ˈtɑː-/ noun (plural meritocracies) 1 PPPSS[countable] a social system that gives the greatest power and highest social positions to people with the most ability2 → the meritocracy —meritocratic /ˌmerətəˈkrætɪk◂/ adjective
Examples from the Corpus
meritocracy• However, in a meritocracy, those at the bottom are clearly inferior.• In a meritocracy, talent and ability are efficiently syphoned out of the lower strata.• He was evidence that the trading floor was a meritocracy.• In the collaborative meritocracy, people who are talented enough and committed enough are rightly seen as indispensable.• The institutional racism model thus overlaps with an equal opportunities model which demands self-conscious meritocracy in spirit and in procedures.• But it was possible to turn the critique of meritocracy against the schools themselves.• Secondly it is a declaration that meritocracy does not operate by default.• The meritocracy that reigned among students thus functioned hardly at all within the faculty.From Longman Business Dictionarymeritocracymer‧i‧toc‧ra‧cy /ˌmerəˈtɒkrəsi-ˈtɑː-/ noun (plural meritocracies) [countable] a social system that gives the greatest power and highest social positions to people with the most abilityEveryone wanted to belong to the new meritocracy, based not on birth but on talent and achievement. 