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Symbol vs Meme - What's the difference?

symbol | meme |

As nouns the difference between symbol and meme

is that symbol is a character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object while meme is 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.

As a verb symbol

is to symbolize.

symbol

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.
  • $ is the symbol for dollars in the US and some other countries.
    '
  • ' is the octothorpe symbol .
  • ''Chinese people use word symbols for writing.
    The lion is the symbol''' of courage; the lamb is the '''symbol of meekness or patience.
  • Any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract) even if there is no meaningful relationship.
  • The dollar symbol has no relationship to the concept of currency or any related idea.
  • (linguistics) A type of noun whereby the form refers to the same entity independently of the context; a symbol arbitrarily denotes a referent. See also icon and index.
  • A summary of a dogmatic statement of faith.
  • The Apostles, Nicene Creed and the confessional books of Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism are considered symbols .
  • Visible traces or impressions, made using a writing device or tool, that are connected together and/or are slightly separated. Sometimes symbols represent objects or events that occupy space or things that are not physical and do not occupy space.
  • (crystallography) The numerical expression which defines a plane's position relative to the assumed axes.
  • That which is thrown into a common fund; hence, an appointed or accustomed duty.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • They do their work in the days of peace and come to pay their symbol in a war or in a plague.
  • Share; allotment.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • The persons who are to be judged shall all appear to receive their symbol .

    Derived terms

    * status symbol * typographical symbol

    Verb

  • To symbolize.
  • (Tennyson)

    See also

    * punctuation

    meme

    English

    (wikipedia meme)

    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?
  • Derived terms

    * memedom * memome * memeplex * meme pool * memetic * memetic algorithm * memetic engineering * memetics

    See also

    * culturgen * email forward * replicator