Meme
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a comparable way to the transmission of genes.
"Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches."
- 2 granny; nana informal
"When my parents got a divorce my dad washed his hands of my mom and me. He just pretended neither she nor I existed. If it weren't for my Meme, I would have lost all contact with the Atwood family after the divorce."
- 3 a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation) wordnet
- 4 Media, usually humorous, which is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, such as basic pictures, video templates, etc. Internet
"He posted a meme that went viral within a few hours on social media."
- 5 A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text. Internet
"This meme generator lets you make your own memes by adding a caption to existing images, or by uploading your own image."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 Something which is deceptive; a trick, a ruse. Internet, derogatory
"It's a meme degree, you know. Good luck getting a job from that."
- 7 Something not to be taken seriously; a joke. Internet, derogatory
"It's a meme degree, you know. Good luck getting a job from that."
- 8 A work produced and shared in response to a prompt or suggestion within an online group. Internet
"kink meme"
- 1 To create and use humorous memes. Internet, intransitive
"Yesterday afternoon four kids went to the hospital for injuries resulting from memeing in front of a local cafe. Faith Hilling, Taylor Swifting. These are things that will get you killed!"
- 2 To turn into a meme; to use a meme, especially to achieve a goal in real life. Internet, transitive
"Scott Greer, a deputy editor of the Daily Caller, tweeted, “Cernovich memed #SickHillary into reality. Never doubt the power of memes.”"
- 3 To joke around. Internet, broadly, intransitive
"actually, it wasn't my mental functioning. i'm just meming."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"I only know the song because it was a meme."
Etymology
Clipping of mimeme, equivalent to mime + -eme. Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Shortened (after gene) from mimeme (compare English phoneme), anglicized as if from a noun derived from Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (mīméomai) with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitation, copy”). The concept was later applied to the Internet by Mike Godwin.
From French mémé (“granny”).