The rise of ‘unc’: is this gen Alpha’s way of saying ‘OK boomer’?
NEWS | 13 January 2026
Name: Unc. Age: Younger than you might think. I have a lovely uncle – best to avoid talking to him about Brexit, but he’s always good for a tenner at Christmas. We’re not talking blood ties – these are figurative uncs. People with “unc status”. Oh no, this is some new slang I need to learn, isn’t it? I’m still struggling with six-seven. Maybe join the other uncs and Google it? According to the language-learning platform Preply, “the word ‘unc’ now pulls in 5.9 million monthly searches” and searches for “unc meaning” are up 74%. I don’t need to search “unc meaning”, I’ve got you. So what does it mean? Older, basically – gen Alpha are using it to address anyone older than them. “Unc” got amplified after a viral TikTok last July in which the content creator Riley Hardwick said he “just found out I’m chopped, and also unc”, after chaperoning kids at a school prom. Chopped? Ugly. But don’t get distracted – the point is unc. Right. Unc. Tell me more. Well, the A-list are getting in on the act. Last month, Sabrina Carpenter referred to the producer Jack Antonoff as unc (plus heart emoji). Then babyfaced Hollywood superstar Timothée Chalamet called himself “unc” in one of his excitable all-caps Instagram posts to mark his 30th birthday. “TIMMYTIM IS OFFICIALLY UNC”. I have just consulted young Chalamet’s Instagram and it’s exhaustingly high energy. How can he be ‘OFFICIALLY UNC’? Remember, 30 is ancient for gen Alpha. On Instagram, one teacher asked his teen students how old you needed to be for unc status and one of them said 20. Also, “Anyone … can be called ‘unc’ if they carry a certain older-sibling or uncle-like energy,” according to Preply. I see. And what are the signs you have “uncle-like energy”? Watching Friends. Knowing the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling. Being baffled by six-seven. Rude. So is unc the new “OK, boomer”? A Reddit thread pondered exactly this recently, but there’s a difference in tone. As a Preply spokesperson explained, using kinship language is a form of “linguistic softening”. Calling someone unc is “more playful than confrontational. It can signal respect, familiarity or gentle teasing rather than dismissal.” That’s sweet. Hang on, though, don’t lots of cultures use “auntie” and “uncle” to address older adults who aren’t blood relatives respectfully? Very much so – in Asia and Africa particularly. “Unc” has also been around for a long time in African American Vernacular English (though opinions differ on how respectful or derogatory it can be). Some content creators have pulled kids up for using it wrongly. “I think y’all have the wrong definition,” one creator, @kaymcfly, says. “You’re calling people unc and they’re not even over 30.” So gen Alpha might have culturally appropriated unc? Arguably, yes. I’m shook. No one says that any more, unc. Do say: “If you need to ask what ‘unc’ means, you are one.” Don’t say: “That’s Mr Uncle to you, show some respect.”
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