The DICT Development Group

  meme
   /meem/, n.
  
      [coined by analogy with ?gene?, by Richard Dawkins] An idea considered as a
      replicator, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize people into
      propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the phrase meme complex
      denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organized belief
      system, such as a religion. This lexicon is an (epidemiological) vector of
      the ?hacker subculture? meme complex; each entry might be considered a
      meme. However, meme is often misused to mean meme complex. Use of the term
      connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool-
      and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive
      ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary
      traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.