What does 789er mean on TikTok? Meaning explained and original video

4 April 2025, 18:05

By Katie Louise Smith

Is 789er an actual swear word or an insult? It is now thanks to this viral video.

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Another day, another TikTok slang phrase that's going viral, but what does '789er' actually mean and who posted the original video? Here's the whole thing explained...

If you've been on TikTok recently, you may have seen a video posted by @killphilvol2 featuring a young child – presumably his daughter – taking part in the trend where adults leave the room and allow kids to say whatever they want to the camera.

After reeling off a whole host of swear words and insults, the kid drops an absolutely devastating yet completely baffling insult: “You seven eight niner!”

The video has since gone viral with over 4.1 million views and other TikTok users have started using the phrase as an insult... but no one knows what it means. "789er insult meaning" and "789er swearing" are now search terms on the app, but no one seems to have any answers.

What does 789er mean on TikTok?

There's over 4,500 comments on the original video with users both playing into the joke and scrambling to find out the meaning behind the apparent insult.

“What does 789er mean? I refuse to Google,” one user wrote. Another added: “I don’t even know what a 789er is.”

“Good lord where did she learn about the 789er?!” a third joked, as someone else wrote: “She swearing in police code.”

"Ok it's consensus right?! We are all using 789er from this day forward?!" another chipped in.

So, what does 789er mean in swearing?

Well, 789er means... nothing. It appears to be a completely made up phrase and there’s no actual meaning behind the phrase the child used.

The original account has not posted a follow up to explain what she meant either so everyone is still in the dark about the hilarious insult.

Some think it might be a reference to the “Why is six afraid of seven?” joke (because seven ate nine…). Others think it sounds a bit like Kendrick Lamar's "A minorrrrrr" lyric from 'Not Like Us' and have speculated that the child may have heard the song and sang the words wrong.

Either way, it looks like a brand new insult just got added to TikTok lore.