meme
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meme¹
- /miːm/
Rhymes with -iːm
Where it comes from
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.
noun memes
-
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.
Similar: culturgen
- Media, usually humorous, which is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, such as basic pictures, video templates, etc. He posted a meme that went viral within a few hours on social media.
- A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text. This meme generator lets you make your own memes by adding a caption to existing images, or by uploading your own image.
- Something which is deceptive; a trick, a ruse. It's a meme degree, you know. Good luck getting a job from that.
- Something not to be taken seriously; a joke. It's a meme degree, you know. Good luck getting a job from that.
- A work produced and shared in response to a prompt or suggestion within an online group. kink meme
verb memes · memeing · meming · memed
- To create and use humorous memes. 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!
-
To turn into a meme; to use a meme, especially to achieve a goal in real life.
Scott Greer, a deputy editor of the Daily Caller, tweeted, “Cernovich memed #SickHillary into reality. Never doubt the power of memes.”
Similar: memeify
- To joke around. actually, it wasn't my mental functioning. i'm just meming.
meme²
Where it comes from
From French mémé (“granny”).
noun memes
- Granny; nana. 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.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: soi, moi, elle, lui, vous, trend, buzzword, catchphrase, trope, fad, craze, gag, motif, concept, notion, viral
Translations
Talk about this word "meme." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/meme. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. meme. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/meme "meme." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/meme.Cite this
@misc{meme_2026,
title = {meme},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/meme},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
