'Choppelganger' term explained as Gen Z use phrase to insult people

There seems to be a new word tearing through Gen Z that we are all going to have to learn, or potentially end up as the unwitting subject of ridicule when someone calls you a 'choppelganger'.

It happens with every generation, someone comes up with a new term for something and suddenly it's hard to remember a time before that word. And if you are not so sure, just think of all the slang invented by Millennials that is now part of common parlance.

Taking a 'thirst trap' with your phone, or is it just a normal 'selfie'? Are you 'basic' or 'extra'? Although these generational slang words once sounded a bit silly, they have all become common parts of everyday speech.

And it looks like the same might happen with 'choppelganger', a word that has started to be used widely on social media but that doesn't have an immediately obvious meaning.

A doppelgänger is a supernatural body double with a close resemblance to your self (Getty Stock Image)

You might have guessed that one half of the word is doppelgänger, but it is the other half that makes it insulting.

What does 'choppelganger' mean?

This new term is what is called a portmanteau, which basically means that Gen Z have smashed two words together to create a new one. The first being 'chopped' and the second being doppelgänger.

A doppelgänger is a spooky body double, but is often used to mean someone who looks just like someone else. Not the worst thing to be called necessarily, but it's the other word that makes it an insult.

Meanwhile, 'chopped' is a slang word that Gen Z uses to mean ugly. So, if you are called a choppelganger, it means they're saying you look like an uglier version of someone else.

Where did the term come from?

Are you chopped? No, not like a vegetable (Getty Stock Image)

Though its origins are hard to pin down as the word has been used by a variety of groups, the term 'chopped' started to blow up in popularity in 2023 thanks to a meme about someone's 'chopped chin'.

But then last year, the word took on a new life when people started to combine it with the term from Germanic folklore for a 'double-walker', doppelgänger.

Possibly the first, or one of the earliest, examples of someone using the word came in March, 2025, when someone commented above a video of someone who looked a bit like Kendrick Lamar: "My dyslexic a** read this as 'choppelganger' and I think I just made a word for someone who looks like u but very slightly and subtly worse."

Just like that, one random internet user added a new word to the language of William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman.

Choppelganger started to grow in popularity towards the end of the year, when TikTok users began pointing out each other's 'less-attractive' lookalikes - as well as the other way around.

One TikToker explained how to use the term: "Everyone has a choppelganger it’s like someone who almost looks like you but chopped."

But they also said that you could be the choppelganger, adding: "Or maybe you’re someone’s choppelganger idk. Food for thought."