Noun

(philosophy) An abstract archetype of a given thing, compared to which real-life examples are seen as imperfect approximations; pure essence, as opposed to actual examples.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-10-19, volume=409, issue=8858, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Trouble at the lab , passage=The idea that the same experiments always get the same results, no matter who performs them, is one of the cornerstones of science’s claim to objective truth. If a systematic campaign of replication does not lead to the same results, then either the original research is flawed (as the replicators claim) or the replications are (as many of the original researchers on priming contend). Either way, something is awry.}}

(obsolete) The conception of someone or something as representing a perfect example; an ideal.

(obsolete) The form or shape of something; a quintessential aspect or characteristic.

*, II.6:

The remembrance whereof (which yet I beare deepely imprinted in my minde) representing me her visage and Idea so lively and so naturally, doth in some sort reconcile me unto her.

An image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory.

More generally, any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}

* 1952 , (Alfred Whitney Griswold)

Ideas won't go to jail.

A conception in the mind of something to be done; a plan for doing something, an (l).

* , chapter=3

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}

A vague or fanciful (l); a feeling or hunch; an impression.

(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.

Noun

(en noun)

Any unit of 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.

*1976 , (Richard Dawkins), The Selfish Gene :

*:Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.

*2002 , Rita Carter, Exploring Consciousness , p. 242:

*:Related memes tend to form mutually supporting meme-complexes such as religions, political ideologies, scientific theories, and New Age dogmas.

(Internet, slang) Something that is copied and circulated online with slight adaptions, including quizzes, basic pictures, video templates etc. A meme can be a photo or artwork, usually with text, often codified with a distinct white block lettering text on the image. If a particular, standardized image is used, there is a protocol to how it should be used

* 2005 , "darklily", OT: Livejournal'' (discussion on Internet newsgroup ''soc.sexuality.general )

I do...but my journal is a mess. It's mostly filled with memes and my bitching about a house I am building.

*2012 , Greg Jarboe, You Tube and Video Marketing , 2nd edition:

*:The idea was to append Keyboard Cat to the end of a blooper video to "play" that person offstage after a mistake or gaffe, like getting the hook in the days of vaudeville. The meme became popular, Ashton Kutcher tweeted about it to more than 1 million followers, and more than 4,000 such videos have now been made.

*2013 , The Guardian , (headline), 8 Feb 2013:

*:Harlem Shake meme : the new Gangnam Style?