memex
noun
memex is a noun meaning “A proposed computer system, implemented with electromechanical controls and microfilm equipment, that would permit a researcher to follow and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-E-M-E-X, and it appears about once in every 55 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of memex is memexes.
What does memex mean?
noun
- 1
A proposed computer system, implemented with electromechanical controls and microfilm equipment, that would permit a researcher to follow and annotate topics of interest, analogous to later hypertext technologies.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of memex
- memexes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is memex?
Memex appears about once in every 55 million words in written English, the 231,291st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does memex come from?
Blend of memory + index, coined by Vannevar Bush in his article As We May Think (1945) in The Atlantic Monthly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).