Weather 
Say what?
Get your notebooks ready because a new Gen Z slang word is circulating — and it sounds oddly familiar but is not a compliment, by any means.
“Choppelganger,” the latest term being thrown around by today’s kids, is not to be confused with “doppelganger.”
While the latter refers to someone who looks exactly like another person, being called a choppelganger is not as polite.
Since apparently the word “chopped” is now used by today’s youth to call another person ugly, choppelganger refers to someone’s uglier copy.
Harsh, right?
While it’s unclear where exactly this insulting phrase originated, one X user jokingly wrote back in May, “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,” in which many commenters chimed in agreeing that this person just coined a new phrase.
“You might’ve just added something to the game wait,” one wrote.
“oh ya that one’s going in the playbook,” read another comment.
“Chopped + doppelgänger, it works,” someone else agreed.
Over on TikTok, one user, who claims people refer to her as Mick Jagger’s choppelganger, shared a now-viral video of herself looking into the camera with overlay text that reads, “If you think someone has a choppelganger, keep it to your d–m self.”
Based on the thousands of comments on the video, youngsters can’t get enough of this new phrase.
“choppelganger is a legendary use of the english language,” read one comment.
“The term choppelganger is making me cry,” quipped another person.
As bizarre as it is, choppelganger comes at a perfect time to replace many other head-scratching slang words that were banned in 2025.
Cringe, game changer, era, dropped, IYKYK, sorry not sorry, skibidi, 100%, utilize and period are all words that Lake Superior State University included on its annual Banished Words List.
In a statement, the university noted, “the fact that some of the same banished word suggestions came from different parts of the world underscores the universal struggle of dealing with challenging words and phrases.”
“Words matter! Old habits can be hard to break and we’re happy to serve as a resource for the court of public opinion on what should continue to be part of the English language and what needs to be put to rest,” LSSU president David Travis said.
