meta — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Clipping of metagame. An informal but widely adopted practice in a given field; a de facto standard.

   Usage

   • Internet
   • broadly
   • Countable

   Examples

   Each video sharing platform's community has a meta on how long videos should be.

   More examples (1)

   I remember interviewing PewDiePie a few years ago, and he was sort of telling me about this time where it was like edgy videos were being really rewarded, so everyone was kind of chasing like edgy humor and edgy memes, and sort of trying to figure out where the edge was. And then YouTube changed the meta, and suddenly, it wasn't good to be edgy, you weren't going to make as much money or get as many views.

Adjective

1. Self-referential; structured analogously (structured by relationships), but at a higher level.

   Usage

   • Informal

   Examples

   Suppose you have a genie that grants you three wishes. If you wish for infinite wishes, that is a meta wish.

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   Suppose you have a homework task where you need to edit a wiki page and upload a screenshot of this entry underneath the word meta as an example of what meta is.

   […] in finessing obligations you fail a "meta" kind of obligation.

   More examples (2)

   Besides, I can just hear Vaughan: "Very funny, Stacey, very Charlie Kaufman-esque, very meta, very '97. I can't use it."

   McDonald & Dodds is back, with episode one so deliberately hammy and meta that, technically, it should have been a complete horlicks. In one scene, when they were all hanging on to the balloon ropes, Mr Bean-like, to stop Jason Watkins flying away, it sort of was.

2. Prominent in the metagame; effective and frequently used in competitive gameplay.

   Examples

   I don't think the character will be meta even with the recent buffs.

Noun

1. Boundary marker.

2. Either of the conical columns at each end of an Ancient Roman circus.

   Usage

   • Historical