Nearby Words

meme

[meem] Example Sentences Origin

meme

[meem]
noun
a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

Origin:
1976; < Gk mīmeîsthai to imitate, copy; coined by R. Dawkins, Brit. biologist
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Meme is always a great word to know.
So is callithumpian. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
Example Sentences
  • The meme that 'if each of us does a little we will achieve a lot' is nothing but wishful thinking.
  • Your meme needs a place to do business.
  • The "psycho veteran" meme is alive and well.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
meme (miːm)
 
n
an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation
 
[C20: possibly from mimic, on the model of gene]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

meme
1976, introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" (1976), coined by him from Gk. sources, e.g. mimeisthai "to imitate," and intended to echo gene.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary

meme definition

philosophy
/meem/ [By analogy with "gene"] Richard Dawkins's term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitise people into propagating them much as viruses do.
Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea.
The term is used especially in the phrase "meme complex" denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organised belief system, such as a religion. However, "meme" is often misused to mean "meme complex".
Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has become more important than biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.
See also memetic algorithm.
[Jargon File]
(1996-08-11)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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