meta

See also: Appendix:Variations of "meta"

Languages (28)

English

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English

Etymology 1

Adjective etymology 1, sense 1 is a back-formation from meta- (prefix).

Adjective etymology 1, sense 2 is derived from noun etymology 1, sense 1.

The noun senses are clippings of various terms beginning with meta (prefix).

Folk etymology for noun etymology 1, sense 1 also suggests an acronym for most effective/efficient tactic available.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛtə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛtə/, [ˈmɛɾə]
• Rhymes: -ɛtə

Noun

meta (plural metas)

2. (video games) Clipping of metagame.

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

   • 2022 November 17, Carver Fisher, “League of Legends preseason 13 has made tanks unkillable”, in Dexerto‎:

     The phrase, “tank meta”, is one that carries a lot of weight when it comes to MOBAs. These metas are generally characterized by tanky, unkillable behemoths dominating the meta and leaving any character that isn’t focused around raw DPS in the dust.

   1. (by extension, countable, Internet slang) An informal but widely adopted practice in a given field; a de facto standard.

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

      • 2023 October 27, 29:51 from the start, in Hard Fork‎ (podcast), spoken by Kevin Roose, The New York Times:

        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.

3. (informal) Clipping of metaoidioplasty.
4. (informal) Clipping of metamour.
5. (fandom slang) Clipping of metanalysis: metanalysis or metacommentary focused on media, fandom, or related topics, typically presented as an essay or dialogue.
   • 2014, Jay Schnorrer, "Adding to Narration and The Johnlock Conspiracy – The Meaning of Digital Media for BBC's Sherlock", paper submitted to Freie Universität Berlin (link):

     Many metas on Tumblr incorporate GIFs of scenes they are referencing as well as screencaps.

   • 2018, Sarah Leiser, "Throne of Fans: Examining the Roles of Feminism, Platform and Community in an Online Fandom", thesis submitted to the University of Denver, page 84:

     Fans create their own stories and media representation through fan fiction. They challenge the feminism in the [Sarah J. Maas] books through discussions and metas.

   • 2020, Elizabeth Minkel, quoted in "Under the Radar: A Conversation about Tumblr in the Public Sphere", in A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures (eds. Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch), page 64:

     It wasn’t until I dug into post-season-3 Sherlock meta in January of 2014 that I started to encounter "the Discourse."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:meta.

Adjective

meta (comparative more meta, superlative most meta)

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

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

   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.

   • 2002, Robert C. Neville, Religion in Late Modernity‎, →ISBN, page 31:

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

   • 2006, Brendan Vaughan, What Would MacGyver Do?‎, →ISBN, page 186:

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

   • 2021 March 1, Carol Midgley, “McDonald & Dodds review – cheerful escapism and filth-free distraction”, in The Times‎:

     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.

4. (video games) Prominent in the metagame; effective and frequently used in competitive gameplay.

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

Translations

self-referential — see also introspective,‎ reflexive

French: méta (fr) Hungarian: meta (hu) Spanish: metaconceptual

See also

• transcendental
• self-aware

Etymology 2

From Latin mēta.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːtə/, [ˈmiːɾə]
• Rhymes: -iːtə

Noun

meta (plural metas or metae)

1. Boundary marker.
2. (historical) Either of the conical columns at each end of an Ancient Roman circus.

Anagrams

• maté, team, meat, mate, Tame, ATEM, AEMT, Atem, -mate, tame, Team, Tema

Bangi

Etymology

See Bangi bweta.

Noun

meta

1. waterfalls

Basque

Noun

meta inan

1. heap

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mēta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈmɛ.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈme.ta]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

meta f (plural metes)

1. (sports) finish line
2. (sports) goal, goalpost

   Synonym: porteria

3. goal, aim, objective

   Synonyms: fi, objectiu

Further reading

• “meta”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007