merit vs worth

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. 

worth

noun
  • Merit, excellence. 

  • Value. 

  • Wealth, fortune, riches, property, possessions. 

  • An amount that could be achieved or produced in a specified time. 

adj
  • Deserving of. 

  • Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for. 

  • Making a fair equivalent of, repaying or compensating. 

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