MEME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does meme mean? 

• MEME (noun)
  The noun MEME has 1 sense:

1. a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation)

  Familiarity information: MEME used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

memes are the cultural counterpart of genes

Hypernyms ("meme" is a kind of...):

acculturation; culture (all the knowledge and values shared by a society)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

 Context examples 

'Il faut que je l'essaie!' cried she, 'et a l'instant meme!' and she rushed out of the room. She is now with Sophie, undergoing a robing process: in a few minutes she will re-enter; and I know what I shall see,—a miniature of Celine Varens, as she used to appear on the boards at the rising of—But never mind that. However, my tenderest feelings are about to receive a shock: such is my presentiment; stay now, to see whether it will be realised.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Whereupon I told her not to mind his badinage; and she, on her part, evinced a fund of genuine French scepticism: denominating Mr. Rochester un vrai menteur, and assuring him that she made no account whatever of his contes de fee, and that du reste, il n'y avait pas de fees, et quand meme il y en avait: she was sure they would never appear to him, nor ever give him rings, or offer to live with him in the moon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)