meme
/miːm/
"meme" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“meme” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,170 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,170
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a comparable way to the transmission of genes.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | meme |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /miːm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #8,170 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “meme” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for meme is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /miːm/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,170 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for meme, with forms such as "emme", "meem", and "memme". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MM", "men", "mom", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of mimeme, equivalent to mime + -eme. Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Shortened (after gene) from mimeme (compare English phoneme), anglicized as if from a noun derived from Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (… The correct English form is meme, spelled M-E-M-E.
Definition
- 1Any unit of (originally cultural) information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another in a comparable way to the transmission of genes.
- 2Media, usually humorous, which is copied and circulated online with slight adaptations, such as basic pictures, video templates, etc.
- 3A specific instance of a meme, such as an image macro or a video, often with humorous superimposed text.
- 4Something which is deceptive; a trick, a ruse.
- 5Something not to be taken seriously; a joke.
- 6A work produced and shared in response to a prompt or suggestion within an online group.
Etymology
Clipping of mimeme, equivalent to mime + -eme. Coined by British biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Shortened (after gene) from mimeme (compare English phoneme), anglicized as if from a noun derived from Ancient Greek μῑμέομαι (mīméomai) with the deverbal suffix -μα (-ma), from μῖμος (mîmos, “imitation, copy”). The concept was later applied to the Internet by Mike Godwin.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emme,meem,memme,mmee,mmeme
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of meme - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “meme”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /miːm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “MM” - see the side-by-side comparison. meme vs MM
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.