meritocracy

Word family

Related topics: Policies, Sociology

mer·i·toc·ra·cy /ˌmerəˈtɒkrəsi $ -ˈtɑː-/ noun (plural meritocracies)

1. PPPSS[countableC] a social system that gives the greatest power and highest social positions to people with the most ability 精英管理（制度），贤能统治

2. the meritocracy PPGSSthe people who have power in a meritocracy 精英管理阶层，贤能统治者 → aristocracy

—meritocratic /ˌmerətəˈkrætɪk◂/ adjectiveadj

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 Dictionary