Plain-English definitions for every major internet meme term — from dank and shitpost to copypasta, ratio, and surreal. The authoritative meme dictionary.
Describing someone who holds or expresses opinions confidently without caring about social approval. Originated in hip-hop slang (notably associated with rapper Lil B) and was adopted by internet communities to mean admirable, bold, or unapologetically authentic. Calling something 'based' is a compliment meaning the person said or did exactly what they thought without pandering.
Originally an internet term for an ideally attractive, confident alpha male. In meme culture, 'Chad' evolved to describe anyone who does something bold, admirable, or against the grain with total confidence — regardless of context. The 'Virgin vs Chad' meme format presents a timid, insecure person (virgin) contrasted with a confident, unashamed one (Chad).
A block of text that is repeatedly copied and pasted across forums, comments, and social media, usually for comedic or satirical effect. Copypastas are a form of meme — the text itself is the template. Famous examples include 'Navy Seal Copypasta', 'Harambe RIP', and loss.jpg descriptions. The name is a portmanteau of 'copy' and 'paste'.
Example: Pasting 'I'm not going to ruin a good meme with a long caption' in response to every post is a copypasta.
Content or behaviour that is embarrassingly awkward, try-hard, or socially unaware — causing the viewer to wince in secondhand embarrassment. In meme culture, cringe content is often repurposed as ironic humour. 'Cringe compilation' videos were a major YouTube genre in the 2010s.
A meme that is considered particularly funny, high-quality, or original. 'Dank' originally meant excellent or potent (slang derived from cannabis culture) and was adopted by meme communities around 2013 to describe memes of unusually high comedic value. A dank meme is the opposite of a forced or stale meme.
Example: r/dankmemes curates content the community considers especially original or funny.
A meme that has been deliberately degraded in quality through heavy image compression, saturation, contrast boosting, and emoji stacking — typically to an extreme or absurdist degree. The 'deep-fried' aesthetic signals ironic distance and is associated with niche internet humour communities. The visual degradation itself is the joke.
The act of compulsively scrolling through a feed of predominantly negative, distressing, or anxiety-inducing content — especially news. The term gained mainstream usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. In meme communities, doomscrolling is contrasted with 'meme therapy' — using humour to cope with distressing news cycles.
A meme that is artificially promoted or repeated in an attempt to make it popular, rather than spreading organically. Forced memes are widely disliked in internet culture because they feel inauthentic. The hallmark of a forced meme is that it requires explanation and doesn't provoke a natural laugh.
A storytelling format originating on 4chan where text is written in first person, each line starting with '>' (which renders as green on 4chan). Greentexts are typically short, humorous, or self-deprecating anecdotes. The format has spread beyond 4chan and is recognised as a distinct meme genre.
Example: >be me >try to make a meme >nobody gets it >mfw
A meme whose humour depends on the viewer recognising that it is deliberately bad, clichéd, or absurd — the joke is the self-awareness of its own failure or excess. Ironic memes became prominent around 2016–2018 as internet humour shifted toward meta-commentary on meme formats themselves. They are distinct from sincere memes, which aim to be straightforwardly funny.
The practice of reposting popular content on platforms with karma or upvote systems (primarily Reddit) to accumulate points without contributing original material. Karma farming is considered low-effort and disrespectful to original creators. Platforms like MemeDome counteract this by crediting and rewarding OC creators directly.
A meme created with minimal time, skill, or originality — often just adding text to an image without a clever joke or novel twist. Low-effort memes are sometimes criticised for diluting meme feeds, but they can go viral if they happen to be relatable or timely despite their simplicity.
A piece of content — typically an image, video, or phrase — that spreads rapidly across the internet through imitation, remixing, and sharing. The word was coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 to describe any cultural unit that replicates and spreads. In internet culture, memes are usually humorous and reference shared experiences, current events, or established templates.
Example: The 'Distracted Boyfriend' is a meme: an image format repurposed by thousands of creators to caption different versions of the same joke.
A competitive format in which two or more creators submit memes on a given theme and the community votes to determine a winner. Meme battles are the core competitive feature of MemeDome — a daily themed battle where participants upload memes, the community votes thumbs up or thumbs down, and the creator with the highest net vote count wins points, a badge, and homepage spotlight.
A metaphorical framework for understanding the rise and fall of meme popularity using financial market terminology. In the 'meme economy', memes are treated like stocks — you 'invest' in a meme early (when it has potential), it 'appreciates' as it goes viral, then 'crashes' as it becomes overused and stale. The meme economy concept originated on r/MemeEconomy.
A meme that has become so mainstream that it is shared by people with little familiarity with internet culture. The term is mildly pejorative in niche meme communities — a normie meme has lost its subversive edge because it has been adopted by the general public. 'Normie' refers to a person outside of a specific internet subculture.
Example: A meme shared by a brand's corporate social media account is typically considered a normie meme.
A meme format comparing people who repeat mainstream opinions without independent thought to NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) in video games — scripted characters with no agency. The NPC meme peaked in 2018 and is used to caricature people perceived as lacking original thinking. The format often features a grey, featureless face.
A meme or post created from scratch by the person sharing it, as opposed to reposted or repurposed content. OC is highly valued in meme communities because it contributes something new rather than redistributing existing material. On MemeDome and Reddit, labelling something as OC is a signal that the creator made it themselves.
A cartoon frog character created by artist Matt Furie in 2005, originally used in a relaxed, feel-good context ('feels good man'). Pepe became one of the most widely used meme templates on the internet, spawning hundreds of variants (Sad Pepe, Smug Pepe, Rare Pepe, Apu). Despite being misappropriated by some extremist groups, Furie has actively reclaimed the character as a symbol of positivity.
On Twitter/X, a post is said to be 'ratioed' when the number of replies significantly exceeds the number of likes — a social signal that the post is widely disagreed with or considered bad. As a verb, 'to ratio' someone means to reply to their tweet with such popularity that your reply gets more likes than the original. The ratio is a form of community-enforced criticism.
Example: 'That post got ratioed' means more people replied critically than liked it.
Sharing a meme that was originally created or posted by someone else, often without attribution. Reposting is common on meme platforms and social media. It is considered acceptable when attribution is given and problematic when it strips creator credit or passes the content off as original work.
Low-effort, absurdist, or deliberately nonsensical content posted for comedic effect rather than meaningful communication. Shitposting is intentionally chaotic — the joke is often in the randomness, incoherence, or poor quality of the post itself. Despite appearing effortless, effective shitposting requires cultural knowledge and timing. The term originated in gaming forums circa 2005.
Example: Posting a blurry image of a potato with the caption 'me when the presentation crashes' is a shitpost.
A meme that deliberately abandons conventional logic, narrative, or visual coherence to create an unsettling, dreamlike, or absurdist comedic effect. Surreal memes often remix familiar formats with unexpected or impossible elements. Communities like r/surrealmemes and r/bonehurtingjuice popularised the format.
A meme format built around a reusable image, video, or structure that creators fill with their own text or context to make a new joke. Templates are the building blocks of internet meme culture. Classic templates include Drake Hotline Bling, Distracted Boyfriend, Expanding Brain, and Two Buttons. A good template is flexible enough to apply to many different scenarios.
Content that spreads exponentially across the internet in a short period, reaching a very large audience through sharing. A meme goes viral when the rate of sharing exceeds what can be attributed to a single originating account — it spreads person-to-person like a biological virus. Viral content typically accumulates millions of views, shares, or upvotes within 24–72 hours of publication.
A family of simple line-drawn faces used extensively in meme culture to express emotions and archetypes. The original Wojak (Polish for 'warrior' or 'soldier') is a simple sad face that originated on Polish and German imageboards circa 2010. Derivatives include Doomer, Bloomer, Zoomer, Boomer, NPC, and Coomer — each representing a different internet archetype.
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