meme
/miːm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.91 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
2
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
noun
Media, usually humorous, which is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, such as basic pictures, video templates, etc.
noun
A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text.
Example Sentences
- "Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches."
- "For most of the population, the media system is, I think, a different one. It's not just the case that it tries to entertain them. It tries to entertain them through memes, which will intensify attitudes that support the interests of elites."
- "Related memes tend to form mutually supporting meme-complexes such as religions, political ideologies, scientific theories, and New Age dogmas."
- "The original Hobson and Jobson stock comic characters have died out as a meme, as has the application of their names to the Muharram in India."
- "He posted a meme that went viral within a few hours on social media."
- "He stuck memes on the wall to campaign for the position of President."
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.