Opps means the opposition — your rivals, enemies, or haters. It is the plural of “opp,” a shortened form of the word “opposition,” rooted in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Chicago drill music. In rap lyrics it can name real enemies. In texts and on TikTok, though, it is usually a joke about anyone even slightly against you — a strict teacher, a sibling who ate your fries, the other team on game day.
Opps at a Glance
| Question | Quick Answer |
|---|---|
| What does opps mean? | The opposition: rivals, enemies or haters |
| What is an opp? | One single opponent or rival |
| Where does it come from? | AAVE and Chicago drill music, early 2010s |
| How do you pronounce it? | “Opp” sounds like “op” (rhymes with “top”); “opps” rhymes with “tops” |
| Is it serious or a joke? | Serious in drill lyrics; playful in everyday chat |
| Is it the same as the 1991 song “O.P.P.”? | No — that stood for “Other People’s Property,” a different term |
| Does opps mean the police? | No — slang for police is “12” or “the feds,” not opps |
What Does Opps Mean?
An opp is anyone on the other side. The word is simply “opposition” cut short: drop everything after the first syllable and you get “opp,” then add an “s” for the plural. Merriam-Webster’s slang entry defines “opps” as a person’s opposition or opponents — and notes the plural is more common than the singular.
Who counts as an opp depends on who is talking:
- In drill and rap lyrics: rival crews or genuine enemies — the original, heavy meaning.
- In school and friend groups: anyone spreading gossip, starting drama, or acting two-faced.
- In sports and gaming: the other team or the other players — pure competition, no bad blood.
- In jokes: whoever mildly inconvenienced you today — your alarm clock, the Wi-Fi router, the teacher who assigned homework on a Friday.
That slide from “real enemy” to “mild annoyance” is the whole story of the word.
Opp vs. Opps: Singular, Plural, and “The Opps”
The singular and plural do slightly different jobs:
- Opp (singular) — one person. “He’s an opp” labels a specific individual as the opposition. The singular appears less often, usually when one person is the focus.
- Opps (plural) — two or more people, or a whole group treated as one side. “The opps” is the most common form of all: it turns a rival group into a single unit, the way you’d say “the other team” — “the opps are watching,” “the opps won again,” even when nobody could name exactly who “they” are.
- Ops — an alternate spelling of opps, with exactly the same meaning; some writers just drop the second “p.”
- Oppa / oppas — a playful extended spelling found in lyrics and memes (as in YBN Nahmir’s “Opp Stoppa”). Same meaning, extra flavour — and unrelated to the Korean word oppa.
One quirk: “opps” can stand alone as a full reaction — a one-word reply to a friend’s confession that says everything: so you’re the enemy now.
How to Pronounce Opp and Opps
Say it as one short word, not letter by letter:
- Opp is pronounced “op” — /ɑːp/ in American English — rhyming with “top,” “stop,” and “cop.”
- Opps just adds an “s” sound and rhymes with “tops.”
The exception is the 1991 song title “O.P.P.,” which is spelled out letter by letter (“oh-pee-pee”) — a sign it is a different term, as explained below.
Where Did Opps Come From?
The word comes from African American Vernacular English, carried into the mainstream by hip-hop. Rappers used the full word “opposition” in lyrics as far back as the 1980s, but the clipped form “opp” is a product of Chicago drill, the raw rap subgenre that emerged in the early 2010s. According to Genius, the earliest use of the abbreviation is in Chief Keef’s 2011 track “John Madden,” and Chicago artists like Chief Keef and Lil Durk made “the opps” — rival groups, with real weight — a fixture of drill vocabulary.
From Chicago it travelled with the music: to New York drill, to UK drill in London (where “opps” and “opp block” became standard terms), and then to TikTok, Snapchat, gaming chats, and school hallways. Each step softened it, until calling someone an opp became less an accusation and more a running gag.
Opps Meaning in Text and Chat
In a text or group chat, “opps” works as a fast label for tension, distrust, or mock outrage — rarely literal danger. Tone does all the work, so the same word can be a warning or a punchline:
| Message | What It Really Means | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| “We just saw our opps at the mall” | We ran into the rival group we don’t get along with | Serious-ish |
| “You ate the last slice? You’re officially an opp” | You betrayed me in the smallest possible way | Joking |
| “Can’t post that photo, the opps are watching” | Gossips and screenshot-takers are lurking | Playful, cautious |
| “She’s been acting like an opp lately” | She’s been distant, shady, or two-faced | Mildly serious |
| “The opps are up by ten, we need a comeback” | The other team is winning | Competitive |
| “My alarm is my biggest opp” | I hate waking up early | Pure joke |
| “He switched sides, he’s with the opps now” | He joined the rival group | Serious |
Among friends, “opp” is closer to a roast than a threat — the same group chat will accuse someone of glazing (over-the-top fake praise) one minute and call them an opp the next.
What Does Opp Mean From a Guy or a Girl?
This is one of the most searched versions of the question. The definition never changes — you are being called the opposition — but the intent behind it almost always falls into one of three buckets:
- Teasing (most common). If a guy or girl calls you their opp while laughing, replying to your stories, or after you beat them at a game, it is flirt-adjacent banter: “you’re the enemy” as a joke.
- Playful complaint. “You didn’t save me any food, you’re an opp” means you wronged me, tiny version — an invitation to laugh and make it up to them, not a real fallout.
- Actually annoyed (least common in chat). If it arrives cold, after an argument, with no joking context — “stop texting me, opp” — they likely see you as genuinely against them or two-faced.
In short: from a friend, “opp” is a joke wearing a tough costume.
Opps on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram
- TikTok is where most people meet the word first — in drill audios, storytime videos, and skits where tiny problems (a moved-up deadline, a found snack stash) get narrated like street conflicts. TikTok comments are also full of stacked slang, so “opps” often appears next to phrases broken down in our guide to the PMO meaning.
- Snapchat captions lean dramatic: “moving silent because of the opps” over a completely ordinary selfie. The contrast is the joke.
- Instagram uses it in memes and indirect captions about drama — “no new friends, too many opps” — usually performative rather than literal.
- WhatsApp and Discord group chats use it for ribbing: whoever sided against you in the group argument is tonight’s opp.
Opps in Gaming and Sports
Games gave the word a second home, because games literally have opposing sides:
- In gaming — including GTA roleplay servers, Fortnite, and shooter lobbies — “the opps” are the rival players or rival crew: the team that ambushed you, the crew your RP group is feuding with. In GTA RP, long-running in-character feuds have players talking about “sliding on the opps” entirely inside the server’s fiction.
- In sports — athletes and fans use “the opps” for the opposing team or its fans, usually with a grin: “the opps are up by ten,” “we don’t talk to the opps on game day.” It is competition talk, not hatred.
In both worlds, the word simply signals sides.
Common Opps Phrases, Explained
The word travels in set phrases, mostly born in lyrics — including a couple darker than the everyday joke version:
| Phrase | Meaning | Where You’ll Hear It |
|---|---|---|
| Opp behavior | Acting shady, two-faced, or like the enemy — “that’s opp behavior” | Texts, TikTok, school |
| Main opp / biggest opp | Your number-one enemy — almost always a joke (an alarm clock, a strict teacher) | Memes, captions |
| Opp list | The running mental list of people who have wronged or annoyed you; “you’re on my opp list now” | Joking in chats |
| Sliding on the opps | Going to confront the rivals; from drill lyrics, now also a joke for showing up where your rivals are | Rap, gaming, memes |
| Opp block | The rivals’ neighbourhood or territory — a UK drill staple | UK drill, rap |
| Opp pack | A dark drill term: smoking in mockery of a defeated or dead rival — the harshest phrase here, and firmly lyric-world vocabulary, not a casual joke | Drill lyrics only |
| Opp stopper (stoppa) | From YBN Nahmir’s 2019 viral hit “Opp Stoppa”: something used against an opp — Nahmir defined it as “something to use against another human being… a gun, a sword, anything” | Music, TikTok audio |
Opp vs. Hater vs. Rival vs. Snake vs. Enemy
These five words get swapped constantly, but each one accuses the person of something different:
| Term | Meaning | Tone | When It’s Used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Someone on the opposing side — a rival, enemy, or anyone “against you” | Playful to serious | Labelling the other side in a conflict, feud, game, or joke |
| Hater | Someone who criticises or resents your success | Casual, dismissive | Online comments and success posts — a hater dislikes you but isn’t an organised opponent |
| Rival | A competitor going for the same thing as you | Mostly neutral, even respectful | Sports, school, business, games — a contest, not hatred |
| Snake | A fake friend who betrays you from inside your own circle | Hurt, accusing | After a betrayal — the key difference is the snake was trusted |
| Enemy | A genuine hostile opponent | Serious | Real conflicts; the strongest, least jokey word of the five |
The quick rule: a rival competes with you, a hater resents you, a snake betrays you, an enemy opposes you for real — and an opp is the slang umbrella for any of them.
What Opps Does NOT Mean
Three lookalikes cause most of the confusion:
- Not the police. Opps has nothing to do with law enforcement — the slang words for police are “12” and “the feds.” “The opps are outside” means rivals, not officers.
- Not the 1991 song. Naughty by Nature’s “O.P.P.” (1991) stood for “Other People’s Property” — a cheeky reference to someone else’s romantic partner. It shares three letters with “opp” and nothing else; the modern word grew separately out of “opposition” two decades later.
- Not the healthcare acronym. In Medicare paperwork, OPPS is the Outpatient Prospective Payment System, the method used to pay hospitals for outpatient services. If it is on a hospital bill, it is this one.
And one spelling note: “opps” is sometimes just a typo for “oops.” If the sentence is an apology, that is all it is.
Is Opps Rude? When to Use It — and When Not To
By itself, “opp” is not a slur or a swear word, and between friends it is rarely an insult. Parents hearing a teenager call a teacher or sibling an opp are hearing exaggeration, not a red flag. Tone and setting still matter:
- Fine: texts, captions, group chats, gaming, sports talk — anywhere slang already lives.
- Risky: aimed at a stranger or mid-argument, where “opp” can sound like a genuine accusation of hostility.
- Avoid: work and school writing, emails, and formal contexts. “Opponent” and “rival” do the same job without the baggage.
How to Reply When Someone Calls You an Opp
Match the energy of the message, not the dictionary:
- If it’s a joke: play along — “the betrayal is noted,” “I accept my villain arc,” or simply “caught me.”
- If it’s a playful complaint: apologise in exaggerated style — “forgive me, the last slice called my name” — and the bit ends there.
- If it feels real: drop the slang and ask straight: “Are we actually good?” A genuine “opp” accusation deserves a real conversation, not a meme reply.
The word confuses plenty of people the first time they hear it — in a Reddit thread on r/NoStupidQuestions, one poster asks what calling someone an “opp” means, and commenters explain that opps is slang for the opposition — opponents or enemies — and not the same as “OP” (original poster).
Frequently Asked Questions
What does opps mean in text?
In texting, opps means the opposition — rivals, enemies, or haters; it is the plural of “opp,” shortened from “opposition.” In most chats it is playful: the “opps” are whoever annoyed or beat the sender that day.
What is an opp?
An opp is one opponent — a person on the other side of a rivalry, argument, or game. “Opps” is used far more often, because people usually mean the rival group as a whole (“the opps”).
Is “ops” the same as “opps”?
Yes — “ops” is just an alternate spelling of “opps,” with the same meaning and uses in texts, captions, and lyrics.
Does opps mean the police?
No. Opps means rivals or enemies, never police — slang for police includes “12” and “the feds.” The confusion may come from phrases like “watch out for the opps,” but that refers to the other side, not officers.
What does it mean if a guy or a girl calls you an opp?
Almost always a joke — teasing you for beating them, eating the last slice, or siding against them in a group argument. It only signals real annoyance when it arrives cold, during or after an actual disagreement.
What does “sliding on the opps” mean?
From drill lyrics, it means going out to confront your rivals. Online and in gaming it is softer: showing up where the rival team or crew is, in character or in competition.
Is it rude to call someone an opp?
Not usually. Between friends it is exaggerated slang, closer to “traitor” said with a grin. It only turns rude in a hostile context — aimed at a stranger or mid-conflict, it can sound like a true accusation.
Conclusion
Opps means the opposition: the rivals, enemies, or haters on the other side — a word built from “opposition,” shaped by AAVE and Chicago drill in the early 2010s, and carried by UK drill, TikTok, gaming, and sports into chat. The definition is fixed, but the temperature is not: deadly serious in some lyrics, pure comedy in most texts. Read the tone before you read the word — and the next time someone calls you an opp, you’ll know whether to laugh, apologise for the fries, or ask what you actually did.