meme

noun

\ ˈmēm

Definition of meme

1 : an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture Memes (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life. Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful memes.— Richard Dawkins

2 : an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media … the band encouraged fans to make memes to advertise the U.S. release of their EP …— William Gruger The grumpy cat meme frowned its way onto the Internet in September 2012 and never turned its dissatisfied head back. Since then, the image of the cranky cat has grown more and more popular in direct proportion to appearing less and less impressed by fame.— Anastasia Thrift

Other Words from meme Did You Know? More Example Sentences Learn More about meme

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Other Words from meme

memetic \ mē-ˈme-tik

, mə- \ adjective

… the exhibition seeks to give a sense not only of Holmes's origins but of the real-world milieu in which Conan Doyle set him and of his memetic spread through the culture. — Sam Leith

Did You Know?

In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, British scientist Richard Dawkins defended his newly coined word meme, which he defined as "a unit of cultural transmission." Having first considered, then rejected, "mimeme," he wrote: "‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene.’ I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate ‘mimeme’ to ‘meme.’" (The suitable Greek root was mim-, meaning "mime" or "mimic." The English suffix -eme indicates a distinctive unit of language structure, as in "grapheme," "lexeme," and "phoneme.") "Meme" itself, like any good meme, caught on fairly quickly, spreading from person to person as it established itself in the language.

Examples of meme in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

His rolling on the field during a game against Serbia, after being knocked by an opponent, has become both a meme and a hashtag. — Sarah Gray, Fortune, "South African KFC Commercial Mocks Neymar's World Cup Rolling. Check it Out," 5 July 2018 Best Meme Queen Winner: Jasmine Masters Runners Up: Alyssa Edwards and Monique Heart In the age of social media, a meme-able persona can play an important role in one’s legacy. — Patrick Crowley, Billboard, "'RuPaul's Drag Race': The Season 10 Cast Picks the Best Alumni of All Time," 4 Apr. 2018 Some of the photos of Altuve's stern look behind Trump immediately caught fire on social media and became meme-worthy, but Altuve said that wasn't his intention. — Matt Young, Houston Chronicle, "Astros' Jose Altuve explains his facial expression at White House," 13 Mar. 2018 Nothing stops the internet from reveling in a sad-looking, meme-able photo. — Ashley Hoffman, Time, "#SadBrandon Is the Saddest Sad Celebrity Meme Ever," 8 Mar. 2018 The Washington Post reported that an anonymous online message being investigated included a racist meme that included slurs for black and Latinx people, and threats to attacks students of color at CHS. — Lucy Diavolo, Teen Vogue, "Charlottesville Schools Shut Down for a Second Day Due to Threats of Racist Violence Against Students of Color," 22 Mar. 2019 But as the age-old saying goes, for every kind of pain, there's a meme for that. — Jenny Hollander, Marie Claire, "Colton Underwood Jumping the Fence Memes to Make You Laugh Through Your Tears," 5 Mar. 2019 Earlier this year, when a meme called the 10 Year Challenge swept Facebook, a similar theory emerged. — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, "Domino's Pizza-Spotting App Is a Window Into a Future of Justified Paranoia," 20 Feb. 2019 The Second Civil War is actually more than a funny Twitter meme. — Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, "The first battle of the #SecondCivilWar is Nov. 6. Female voters must be a force.," 5 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'meme.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.