meme
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of meme
First recorded in 1976; coined by British evolutionary biologist C. Richard Dawkins (born 1941), shortening of Dawkins's original creation mimeme, which was based on Greek mī́mēma “imitation, copy; artistic representation,” but which Dawkins also wanted to look and sound like gene; cf. mimesis ( def. )
Explanation
A meme is an idea or habit that's passed between people and generations through imitation. An example of a meme is the cultural tradition of women wearing skirts. A cultural idea, value, habit, or even something like a tune is a meme if it is picked up from someone else. A meme, which is pronounced "meem," will change over time, like younger kids who want to wear the exact same clothes but who eventually develop their own, though similar, styles. Recently, meme has become commonly used to refer to Internet memes — pictures, videos, or even slang words that are shared between Internet users.
Vocabulary lists containing meme
The Hate U Give
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The Poet X
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This Week in Pop Culture: December 8 -14, 2018
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Although Canadian software company BlackBerry was once considered “a meme stock,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Studios have become fixated on hunting down every short film, internet meme and indie video game with the potential to “put something new and fresh on the screen,” Lee said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Former Reddit darling Hertz falls as Wendy’s takes up the meme stock mantle.
From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2026
There is an AI-generated meme doing the rounds on social media in Italy that shows Giorgia Meloni doing all the things you might expect from someone fresh out of a tough break-up.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
And Em’s dad reminded Bridge of Em’s mom—he watched reality TV and always knew what meme was going around.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
Poop jokes and memes aside, cyclosporiasis is a serious parasitic foodborne intestinal illness whose symptoms include nausea, fatigue, and explosive diarrhea that can last weeks or even months without antibiotic treatment.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
“A lot of memes and pictures and what not.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The red card saga quickly generated viral internet memes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
The now ubiquitous phrase has been featured in memes and compilation videos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
Many of the silliest ambiguities in the Internet memes come from newspaper headlines and magazine tag lines precisely because they have been stripped of all punctuation.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
“Time to meme like we have never memed before,” wrote Reddit user chance901.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
After Grimes and Musk split, he memed his way into being forced to buy Twitter for way too much money.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
By his own admission, it was a bold move, one that turned him into one of the most famously memed figures in India.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2025
That said, it’s always a gamble for a memed figure to lean into their own joke; it can kill the momentum.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2024
To no one’s surprise, “SNL” drilled in on Britt’s State of the Union response speech, which in only two days has been memed and parodied across TikTok and other social platforms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2024
As for the spoofing and memeing of the 60-second spot, Trotter said she and her colleagues just “can’t ignore it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2025
In 2020 Sen. Ed Markey fended off his primary challenger—a young Kennedy!—by memeing himself into winning the youth vote.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2024
We said, 'No.' They didn't think of the impact that would have on how people would pick that up and start memeing it, and that's what happens with these things.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2022
The deal also includes Morbius, a film that flopped at the box office and was brought back to theaters by relentless memeing only to flop again.
From The Verge ● Jun. 17, 2022
Beyoncé was horrified, Swift reportedly started bawling, and the internet began castigating and memeing Kanye relentlessly.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 25, 2015
And when watching the series, there is no question about the skill of the team members, so I was initially a little shocked at the eventual meming of the show.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2020
On the left, we spend our time calling out and shutting down, lolling and meming and dropping mics.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 1, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
