go viral

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to spread with extraordinary rapidity across digital networks, social media platforms, or the public consciousness, reaching enormous audiences far beyond any that could have been anticipated or planned for, typically through organic sharing and resharing driven by emotional resonance, novelty, humour, or outrage; the biological metaphor of viral spread is applied to content, ideas, phrases, and cultural moments whose transmission through digital networks mimics the exponential growth dynamics of an epidemic, with each person who encounters and shares the content acting as a node that exponentially multiplies the audience; going viral can make unknown individuals famous overnight and amplify messages across cultural and geographic boundaries with unprecedented speed