[category]
[title]
Look, we all do it. You’re mid-conversation. Someone drops a word you half-remember from a Grade 11 English class. You nod along while frantically Googling it under the table.
No shame. It’s basically a national pastime, like asking your favourite search engine, “Does free will exist?” at 3am while facing an existential crisis.
Word Unscrambler crunched the numbers on South Africa’s most-searched word definitions for 2026, and the results are equal parts hilarious and oddly revealing.
And the word that had the Western Cape reaching for its search bar more than any other? Integrity.
Wait, integrity? Really?
Of all the provinces, the Cape went full philosophy class.
While the rest of the country was busy Googling “narcissist” (more on that chaos below), Western Cape residents were asking the internet what it means to do the right thing when nobody’s watching.
Very on brand for a province that argues about recycling bins with genuine passion.
The rest of Mzansi was not as zen
Nationally, “narcissist” topped the charts with 38,200 monthly searches, followed closely by “gaslighting” at 36,300.
Make of that what you will about the state of the group chat. “Love” came in third, because apparently we’re all still figuring that one out too. “Anxiety” wasn’t far behind, which is fair.
Here’s how the rest of the provinces stacked up, word-wise:
Province, meet your word
- Gauteng: Grace (elegant, unbothered, correct)
- KwaZulu-Natal: Agile (understandable, given the traffic)
- North West: Gaslighting (someone needs to talk)
- Limpopo: Narcissist (see above)
- Eastern Cape: Resilience (earned, honestly)
- Free State and Northern Cape: Both landed on spiritual, which tracks for two provinces with that much open sky
- Mpumalanga: Nonchalant (the vibe, not the effort)
So, what is actually going on here?
A spokesperson for Word Unscrambler pointed out that South Africans aren’t Googling random objects.
They’re Googling the stuff that matters. Relationships. Emotions. How to make sense of the world around them.
“Our research shows that emotional well-being, values, society and personal growth are the categories that stand out the most,” said the spokesperson. “People are searching for definitions to better understand personal experiences and public conversations.”
The methodology used Google Trends to discover the most searched word definitions and Ahrefs to find the number of searches.
For the Western Cape specifically, that lines up almost too neatly. Integrity sits right in the values camp, which says something about a province that spends a lot of time debating governance and sustainability. Not a bad thing at all.
Sign up to Time Out Cape Town's free newsletter for expert recommendations on new things to do, see, eat and drink in the Mother City. You can also follow Time Out Cape Town on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok!
RECOMMENDED:
🏨 The best hotels in Cape Town
🍷 The best wine farms in and around Cape Town
🍕 The best pizza in Cape Town
📍 The best things to do in Cape Town