1
informal
: showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category : cleverly self-referential
"The Bar?" she said. "I know the place. Been meaning to drop by. Love the name. Very meta."—
Gillian Flynn
Gillian FlynnThe meta gift of the year: a picture of a lamp that actually lights up. Designer Finn Magee's trompe l'oeil is printed on plastic, embedded with electronics, and equipped with a cord and switch.—Karissa Bell et al.
Karissa Bell et al.A new comedy about fantasy football, which follows a group of armchair quarterbacks as they try to tackle life. How meta would it be if people started betting on what was going to happen on the show?—TV Guide
TV GuideLeave it to Larry to contort public desire for a Seinfeld reunion into a meta plot that chronicles his not-necessarily-noble struggle to pull off a Seinfeld reunion.—Dan Snierson
Dan Snierson2
informal
: concerning or providing information about members of its own category
… Slate, a Web zine published by Microsoft that devotes much of its content to what [editor Michael] Kinsley calls "meta news"—news about the news.—Rick Marin et al.
Rick Marin et al.Given that the coverage of any one search engine is limited, the simplest means of improving the coverage of Web search engines is to combine the results of multiple engines, as is done with meta search engines such as MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com).—Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence
variants
or met-
1
a
: occurring later than or in succession to : after
metestrus
b
: situated behind or beyond
metencephalon
metacarpus
c
: later or more highly organized or specialized form of
metaxylem
2
: change : transformation
metaplasia
3
[metaphysics]
: more comprehensive : transcending
metapsychological
—usually used with the name of a discipline to designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the original onemetamathematics
4
a
: involving substitution at or characterized by two positions in the benzene ring that are separated by one carbon atom
meta-xylene
b
: derived from by loss of water
metaphosphoric acid
Examples of meta in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Expert Panel®, Forbes, 6 Nov. 2024
Many of this season's reality TV villains have infamously served time, and the meta comedic series calls that out immediately.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 9 Oct. 2024
The meta moment acknowledges the show’s greatest ill at this point in time, but doesn’t excuse or remedy it in the slightest.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 30 Oct. 2024
This sets up the meta gag that Fox has been trying to wrap up the show for years and that many classic episodes were actually designed to be finales, which is followed by a series of reanimations of iconic scenes where things go extremely awry in very dark ways.
—Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for meta 
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Adjective
Automate The Creation Of Dynamic Meta Tags And Descriptions
AI can boost SEO by automating the creation of dynamic meta tags and descriptions.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 6 Nov. 2024
Many of this season's reality TV villains have infamously served time, and the meta comedic series calls that out immediately.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 9 Oct. 2024
The meta moment acknowledges the show’s greatest ill at this point in time, but doesn’t excuse or remedy it in the slightest.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 30 Oct. 2024
This sets up the meta gag that Fox has been trying to wrap up the show for years and that many classic episodes were actually designed to be finales, which is followed by a series of reanimations of iconic scenes where things go extremely awry in very dark ways.
—Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for meta
Dictionary Entries Near meta
Cite this Entry
“Meta.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meta. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
meta
1 of 2 adjective
: relating to, characterized by, or being two positions in the benzene ring that are separated by one carbon atom
meta-
2 of 2 prefix
variants
or met-
1
: isomeric with or otherwise closely related to
metaldehyde
2
: involving substitution at or characterized by two positions in the benzene ring that are separated by one carbon atom
—abbreviation m-
meta-xylene or m-xylene
compare orth- sense 2, para- sense 2
Geographical Definition
Meta
geographical name
Me·ta
ˈmā-tä 
river over 620 miles (995 kilometers) long in northeastern Colombia flowing into the Orinoco River on the Venezuela–Colombia boundary
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