Gaslighting, narcissist and love: The words South Africans searched most in 2026

South Africa’s most searched word definition (monthly searches):

1.      Gaslighting – 36 300 searches.

2.      Narcissist – 38 200 searches.

3.      Love – 34 500 searches.

4.      Anxiety – 31 000 searches.

5.      Metaphor – 30 800 searches.

6.      Integrity – 28 500 searches.

7.      Fatigue – 26 200 searches.

8.      Agile – 25 000 searches.

9.      Stress – 23 700 searches.

10.   Spiritual – 23500 searches.

11.   Capacity – 23 400 searches.

12.   Clingy – 23 200 searches.

13.   Equity – 22 800 searches.

14.   Nonchalant – 22 700 searches.

15.   Democracy – 22 600 searches.

16.   Ethics – 22 400 searches.

17.   Science – 22 200 searches.

18.   Empathy – 21 200 searches.

19.   Grace – 21 000 searches.

20.   Resilience – 19 500 searches.

21.   Power – 18 000 searches.

22.   Corruption – 14 700 searches.

23.   Discernment – 14 100 searches.

24.   Eligible – 12 900 searches.

25.   Apathy – 9 400 searches.

South Africa’s most searched word definition by region:

·        Mpumalanga – Nonchalant.

·        Limpopo – Narcissist.

·        Northern Cape – Spiritual.

·        Eastern Cape – Resilience.

·        Free State – Spiritual.

·        North West – Gaslighting.

·        Western Cape – Integrity.

·        Gauteng – Grace.

·        KwaZulu-Natal – Agile.

A spokesperson for Word Unscrambler (Unscramblerer.com) commented on the findings: “One of the most striking findings is that South Africa’s top searched definitions in 2026 are dominated by abstract concepts rather than objects. From gaslighting and narcissist to integrity and democracy, people are searching for words that help them navigate relationships, emotions and the wider world. Our research shows that emotional wellbeing, values, society and personal growth are the categories that stand out the most. Emotional wellbeing words: gaslighting, narcissist, love, anxiety, stress, fatigue, empathy, clingy, nonchalant and apathy. Value based and societal words: integrity, democracy, equity, ethics, corruption, power and capacity. Personal growth and educational words: resilience, discernment, spiritual, science, metaphor, agile, grace and eligible. People are searching for definitions to better understand personal experiences and public conversations.”

Research was conducted by word unscrambling experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed Jan 1, 2026 – July 15, 2026 search data from Google Trends for “definition”.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the most searched word definitions and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. South Africa’s most searched word definitions can be discovered in Google Trends by searching for “definition”, “define”, “definition of” etc. Ahrefs shows many variations of word definition searches like “what is the definition of empathy” or “define love”. We added up 130 search variations of top definition searches.

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Source: Unscramblerer.com