meme

\ ˈmēm

How to pronounce meme (audio)

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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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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 Schneiter's attorney, Nate Cade, said there was no evidence Schneiter had posted the memes during work or mistreated anyone based on race or religion. — Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Deputy prison warden fired over Facebook posts tries to get his job back," 21 Feb. 2020 Facebook, which owns Instagram, said the campaign mostly recycled existing memes and posts from real American news organizations and political groups. — Eliza Mackintosh, CNN, "Iowa conspiracy theories show US democracy has bigger problems than foreign interference," 9 Feb. 2020 An attorney for Laney Marie Griner, who's son Sam Griner is pictured in the meme, on Monday sent a cease and desist letter to King (R-Iowa). — Ashley Cullins, The Hollywood Reporter, "Mom of "Success Kid" Threatens to Sue Rep. Steve King for Using the Meme in Fundraising Effort," 27 Jan. 2020 The hilarious gaffe has lived on in Oscars history, spawning countless memes and even a parody Twitter account. — Lauren Huff, EW.com, "Idina Menzel pokes fun at John Travolta gaffe ahead of 2020 Oscars performance," 24 Jan. 2020 Thief, the gender-neutral alias posting memes and motivational notes on the @LTMusical account since the show’s run Off Broadway in 2017. — Nancy Coleman, New York Times, "Behind the ‘Lightning Thief’ Twitter Curtain: A Tony Winner," 6 Jan. 2020 Actress Keke Palmer inspired a new meme while taking a lie detector test for Vanity Fair. — Jason Lederman, Popular Science, "Ten GIFs that really got us through 2019," 28 Dec. 2019 Defense lawyers failed to persuade Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Hill Jr. to exclude the racist memes and Facebook group as trial evidence. — Michael Kunzelman, baltimoresun.com, "Jury to decide if Maryland college student’s killing was hate crime," 8 Dec. 2019 Millennials have allied with Gen Z, and managed to vitiate the meme in the process by, basically, overdoing it. — Molly Roberts, The Denver Post, "Molly Roberts: OK, boomer. The kids are fighting back.," 7 Nov. 2019

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.

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Dictionary Entries near meme

membranous labyrinth

Statistics for meme

Last Updated

28 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Meme.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meme. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.

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