check mark vs merit

check mark

noun
  • A mark (✓) made to indicate agreement, correctness or acknowledgement. 

  • In long jump, javelin and similar events, little mark alongside the runway which helps the athlete to set their steps just right for their performance. 

merit

noun
  • A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence. 

  • Usually in the plural form the merits: the substantive rightness or wrongness of a legal argument, a lawsuit, etc., as opposed to technical matters such as the admissibility of evidence or points of legal procedure; (by extension) the overall good or bad quality, or rightness or wrongness, of some other thing. 

  • A claim to commendation or a reward. 

  • Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward. 

  • The sum of all the good deeds that a person does which determines the quality of the person's next state of existence and contributes to the person's growth towards enlightenment. 

verb
  • To be deserving or worthy. 

  • To deserve, to earn. 

How often have the words check mark and merit occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )