A prefix used to indicate a concept that is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter. prefix
In the study of linguistics, metalanguage is the language used to describe language itself.
Metacognition refers to the awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.
In informal usage, it refers to something that is self-referential or self-aware, often used in art, literature, or media to describe works that comment on themselves or their genre. adjective
The movie was so meta; it included scenes where the characters were aware they were in a movie.
His joke was meta, as it was about the act of telling jokes.
In computing, it refers to data about data, often used to describe metadata which provides information about other data. noun
The metadata for the photograph included the date it was taken and the camera settings.
Database administrators often manage metadata to ensure data integrity and accessibility.