Dawkins says that genes are not the only replicators. If we expand the term replicators in a broad sense and not simply in a biological sense, memes are “the new replicators” in comparison to genetic evolution. “Meme is an information pattern held in an individual's brain which is capable of being copied to another (or several) individual's memory” (Dawkins). Therefore a meme is equivalent to an information pattern; it is a unit of culture that is capable of being transmitted or copied to many other people's individual memories.

The origin of the term “meme” goes back to the Greek word mimeme or “something imitated”. Imitation is the process by which memes get transferred to other individuals' brains. The word is employed by Dawkins to discuss evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.