A new term is gaining traction among Gen Z, and it’s one you might want to familiarize yourself with to avoid being the butt of a joke: ‘choppelganger’.
Each generation tends to coin new phrases that eventually become ingrained in everyday language. If you’re skeptical, take a look at the words birthed by Millennials, many of which are now routine vernacular.
Is that picture you took a ‘thirst trap’ or just a ‘selfie’? Are you considered ‘basic’ or ‘extra’? These words once seemed a bit outlandish but have seamlessly integrated into common speech.
Now, ‘choppelganger’ is making waves on social media, though its meaning isn’t immediately apparent.
If you’ve guessed that part of the word comes from ‘doppelgänger,’ you’re halfway there. The other half is where the insult lies.
This term is a portmanteau, meaning Gen Z has fused two words into one new expression. The first part is ‘chopped,’ and the second is ‘doppelgänger’.
Doppelgänger typically refers to someone who eerily resembles another person, which isn’t inherently negative. However, it’s the addition of ‘chopped’ that adds the insult.
In Gen Z slang, ‘chopped’ stands for unattractive. Therefore, being called a choppelganger implies you resemble someone else but in a less flattering way.
Though pinpointing the exact origin of the term is challenging, it gained momentum in 2023 due to a meme about someone’s ‘chopped chin’.
In the same year, the term evolved as it was combined with the Germanic folklore concept of a ‘double-walker’ or doppelgänger.
The word ‘choppelganger’ may have first appeared in March 2025 when someone remarked above a video of a Kendrick Lamar lookalike: “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.”
This spontaneous internet comment added a new word to the lexicon familiar to literary giants like William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman.
The term gained further traction toward the end of the year on TikTok as users began identifying each other’s less-attractive counterparts.
One TikTok user explained the term’s use: “Everyone has a choppelganger—it’s like someone who almost looks like you but chopped.”
They also suggested you could be someone else’s choppelganger, pondering: “Or maybe you’re someone’s choppelganger idk. Food for thought.”