The word chad has many different meanings. How many of them do you know? Keep reading to learn all about the meaning of Chad and how to use it.
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Kevin
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April 19, 2022
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Common Questions
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Chad is a very versatile word that you might see in numerous contexts. This word can be used as a common noun or a proper noun, a name, and a slang term. Do you know all of the different definitions of the word chad? Keep reading to learn more about the word chad!
What Does Chad Mean?
According to Your Dictionary, the word chad is a noun that refers to a small piece of paper left behind after a hole punch, such as those removed when punching ballots, paper tape, or another type of punch card. The pronunciation of Chad is tʃæd.
This term rose to popularity during the 2000 presidential election with the hanging chad controversy. Britannica states that a hanging chad is an incompletely punched paper ballot. Other forms of mis-punched chads include the pregnant chad (a ballot that has been dimpled but not fully punched), overvotes (ballots that have recorded multiple votes), and undervotes (ballots that recorded no vote).
What About the Name Chad?
According to Name Berry, Chad can be a nickname for names like Chadwick and Charles. This name comes from English origins and means “battle warrior.” This name hit its peak popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has declined since.
Currently, the name Chad sits at roughly 700 on the most popular names list. There are many famous people named Chad. Take a look at the below famous examples of Chad and see how many of these celebrities you know!
- Chad Michael Murray
- Chad Cobain
- Charles Conrad “Chad” Lowe
- Chad Lamont Butler, aka Pimp C
- Chad Allen
- Chad Steven Henne
- Chad Marshall
- James Chadwick “Chad” Pennington
- Chad Coleman
- Chad Robert Kroeger
- Saint Chad of Mercia
- Chad Greenway
- Chad Guy Bertrand Le Clos
- Chad Michaels
- Chad Gaylord Smith
- Chad Edward Hugo
- Chad Matthew Butler
- Chad Linley
- Chad Javon Johnson aka Chad Ochocinco
- Charles Stephen “Chad” Paine III
What Is the Country Chad?
Chad is also a place! This country in north-central Africa was once a part of French Equatorial Africa but achieved its independence in 1960. The capital of Chad is N’Djamena, and this country borders Niger, Cameroon, and Nigeria. One of its most famous attractions is Lake Chad.
What Is the Slang Term Chad?
The most popular usage of the word Chad is as a slang term in the modern-day. According to Dictionary, the word chad is a derogatory slang term for an alpha male who is confident, handsome, and sexually active.
On forum websites like 4Chan, the incel community created the term Chad and its counterpart for females, Stacy. An incel is short for “involuntary celibate,” a man who is abstinent against his will.
Incels believe that chads are at the peak of masculinity and heavily resent and envy the Chads. Moreover, they express vehement hatred toward Chads online because of their unattainable qualities and the fact that they are often thought to sleep with a lot of women, which incels do not.
What Is the Etymology of the Word Chad?
No one really knows where the term chad comes from! People speculate that the word chad might come from an English slang term, chat, which means louse. This slang term might originate in the Scots chad, which means river gravel. However, these are all guesses.
The slang term Chad likely comes from the 2000s Chicago Slang, from the Lincoln Park Chads Society, a fictional social club website. People used the name Chad to refer to upper-class males on this website. Users first added this term to Urban Dictionary in 2008.
What Are Translations of Chad?
To refer to the hanging piece of paper Chad in languages other than American English, you can reference this list of translations of chad from Nice Translator. If you are involved in an election that is taking place in another country, knowing this list of translations of the word chad can prove useful.
- Welsh: chad
- Finnish: tšaatti
- Norwegian: Tsjad
- French: chadre
- Italian: chad
- Kannada: ಚಾಡ್
- Urdu: چاڈ
- Hindi: काग़ज़ का टुकड़ा
- Romanian: Ciad
- Hebrew: chad
- German: Tschad
- Thai: ชาด
- Malay: Chad
- Croatian: Čad
- Arabic: تشاد
- Portuguese (Brazil): Chade
- Greek: τσάντες
- Amharic: ቻድ
- Malayalam: ചാർജ്
- Japanese: チャド
- Slovak: chad
- Basque: matotz
- Ukrainian: чат
- Estonian: tšaad
- Turkish: chad
- Chinese (PRC): 乍得
- Latvian: Čada
- Marathi: चाड
- Korean: 차드
- Portuguese (Portugal): Chade
- Spanish: Chad
- Serbian: чађ
- Catalan: txad
- Gujarati: ચૅડ
- Russian: Чад
- Lithuanian: Čadas
- Tamil: சாட்
- Chinese (Taiwan): 乍得
- Bengali: চাদ
- Swedish: tchad
- Hungarian: Csád
- Telugu: చాడ్
- Bulgarian: Чад
- Dutch: Tsjaad
What Are Synonyms of Chad?
There are many different ways to refer to someone who embodies the slang term Chad. Unfortunately, the slang term Chad has a highly negative connotation and is associated with the incel community, so you should make sure to use this word carefully.
If you are looking for a word with the same definition as the word Chad and a different connotation, try out a word from this list of Chad synonyms from Power Thesaurus.
- action man
- alpha dog
- alpha lion
- alpha male
- alpha males
- dominant bulls
- dominant male
- dominant males
- domineering male
- Hercules
- hunk
- iron man
- macho alpha male
- macho man
- man among men
- man meat
- muscleman
- Samson
- strongman
- Tarzan
- tough guy
Conclusion
The word Chad has various meanings. This word can be a man’s name, a country’s name, a common noun meaning a piece of paper, or a slang term for a cocky alpha male.
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