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memetic

memetic

1 7.8
Content spreads quickly online because people copy and share it
  • adjective
  • /məˈmɛtɪk/
  • Texting
: memético
  • Poets, tragedians are memetic artists, as are portrait painters.
  • memetic engineering

But it, it actually, it works because it's, it's a way to hack memetic desire.

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Examples

  • So social media has given us millions of memetic models that we now have to contend with.

  • There may well be some such effect that is important, but I want to make the case that there might also be a purely memetic explanation of the origin of music.

    Academic text (2001)
  • And I find Instagram creates all this memetic desire in me for stuff.

  • So the memetic desire is like step one of Gerard's theory.

  • We may conclude that the scope for memetic explanation of the development of scripts is, at best, limited.

    Academic text (2001)
  • I'm sort of a memetic free marketeer: I believe that the more open and free the debate is, the better solutions emerge.

    Blog text (28)
  • A meme stock is kind of a new term for these stocks that catch memetic momentum on Reddit.

  • We can use Darwin's three levels of genetic selection, plus our own fourth level, genetic engineering, as a model for four parallel levels of memetic selection in human culture.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Which is what makes cats so important as a memetic medium—their popularity and ubiquity lend them infinite plasticity.

    Blog text (7)
  • The viral video generated a huge amount of memetic content across various social media platforms.

Synonyms

mimetic
vsmemetic
3 8.1

Showing that something copies the look or behavior of another thing

focuses on rapid spread by imitation, especially online

How Shareable

ubiquitous
54 9.0
viral
  • Texting
116 3.7
memetic
  • Texting
1 7.8
noticeable
65 3.2
obscure
86 7.0

Surface Forms

memetic positive

Morphology

memetic = meme (transparent) = meme + ic

The adjective is a straightforward derivation from the noun 'meme' with the productive suffix '-ic' meaning 'relating to'.

Etymology

Memetic comes from meme, a modern word made from a Greek idea meaning 'something imitated', just like the word mimic, and the ending -etic means 'related to'. So memetic describes things that spread by copying, especially online, like a catchphrase or a funny image.