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
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memetic
play \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
