Meta

//ˈmɛtə// adj, name, noun, slang

adj, name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Clipping of metagame. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping

    "I don't think the character will be part of the meta even with the recent buffs."

  2. 2
    Boundary marker.
  3. 3
    Clipping of metagame.; An informal but widely adopted practice in a given field; a de facto standard. Internet, broadly, countable

    "Each video sharing platform's community has a meta on how long videos should be."

  4. 4
    Either of the conical columns at each end of an Ancient Roman circus. historical
  5. 5
    Clipping of metaoidioplasty. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal
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  1. 6
    Clipping of metamour. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal
  2. 7
    Clipping of metanalysis: metanalysis or metacommentary focused on media, fandom, or related topics, typically presented as an essay or dialogue. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang

    "Many metas on Tumblr incorporate GIFs of scenes they are referencing as well as screencaps."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Self-referential; structured analogously (structured by relationships), but at a higher level. informal

    "Suppose you have a genie that grants you three wishes. If you wish for infinite wishes, that is a meta wish."

  2. 2
    Prominent in the metagame; effective and frequently used in competitive gameplay.

    "I don't think the character will be meta even with the recent buffs."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly Facebook, Inc. (until late 2021): an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company that is the parent organization of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among other subsidiaries.
  2. 2
    A city in Osage County, Missouri.
  3. 3
    Meta, a biomedical research discovery tool. historical

Synonyms

All synonyms
super-

Example

More examples

"The village people called the old woman Meta."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Adjective etymology 1 sense 1 is a back-formation from meta- (prefix). Adjective etymology 1 sense 2 is derived from noun etymology 1 sense 1. The noun senses are clippings of various terms beginning with meta (prefix). Folk etymology for noun etymology 1 sense 1 also suggests an acronym for most effective/efficient tactic available.

Etymology 2

From Latin mēta.

Etymology 3

The technology conglomerate is named for its connotative evocation of the idea of the metaverse, the research tool after metascience.

Etymology 4

Named after Meta Schreifer, the sister of a railroad official, from German Meta.

Related phrases

self aware

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.