# meme

Pronunciation: say "MEEM" /miːm/

## Noun

1. An image, video, piece of text or other item that is copied and shared widely online, often with small changes each time, usually as a joke.
   - Simple: A picture, video or bit of text, usually funny, that people copy, change and share online.
   - _The format of that meme got reused thousands of times within a week._
   - _Within days, the meme had spawned thousands of versions, each with a new caption._
2. A unit of cultural information (a practice or idea) passed from one mind to another by speech or imitation, in a way comparable to how genes are transmitted.
   - Simple: An idea, habit, or piece of culture that spreads from person to person, a bit like genes pass on traits.
   - _A religious ritual can survive for centuries as a meme, copied faithfully from one generation to the next._
   - _Cultural theorists treat a catchy jingle as a meme, since it spreads from one mind to the next as people hum it and pass it on._
3. A piece of work that members of an online group make and post when someone sets a prompt or offers a suggestion.
   - Simple: A piece of work made and shared after someone in an online group suggests it.
   - _Each Tuesday the host picks a theme, and dozens of book bloggers write their own version of the meme and link back to her page._
   - _After a friend tagged her, she filled out the twenty-question meme on her journal and invited five more people to do the same._
6. Something regarded as not worth taking seriously; a joke.
   - Simple: A thing nobody should take seriously, just a joke.
   - _Critics dismissed the proposal as a meme rather than a serious policy._
   - _The startup's so-called strategy was a meme, all hype and no substance._
7. Something deceptive; a trick or ruse.
   - Simple: A trick or lie meant to fool people.

## Verb

4. To make and share memes, or to turn someone or something into a meme.
   - Simple: To make and share online memes, or to turn someone or something into one.
   - _Activists meme political slogans to push their message into the mainstream._
   - _By Friday, students had memed the principal's favorite saying so thoroughly that he started quoting the jokes back to them._
5. To joke around; to mess around without being serious.
   - Simple: To joke around and not be serious.
   - _They meme around with each other constantly during practice._
   - _Quit memeing and take this seriously for once._

## Other meanings

- (noun) An affectionate name for one's grandmother; granny.

## Origin

Richard Dawkins, a British biologist, introduced "meme" in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. He shortened "mimeme" on the model of "gene" (compare "phoneme"). Its ancestry runs through Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (mīméomai, "to imitate") to μῖμος (mîmos, "imitation, copy"). Mike Godwin later used the concept for the Internet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/meme (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).