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Somewhere between beach season and dodging potholes on the M4, KwaZulu-Natal residents are apparently pausing to double-check what agile means.
Fitting, honestly, for a province that prides itself on rolling with the punches.
New research analysing Google search data revealed the most searched word definitions in South Africa.
The research was conducted by Word Unscrambler. Their guys tracked Google Trends search data for the term “definition” from 1 January to 15 July 2026. They then utilised Ahrefs to pin down search volumes.
While Limpopo is knee-deep in narcissist research and the Free State is off searching its soul for spiritual, KwaZulu-Natal landed on agile, tallying 25,000 monthly searches nationally.
Coastal calm, corporate buzzword. Who knew.
Why are we pressed on narcissism?
Zoom out to the national picture and the story gets a little more dramatic.
Narcissist topped the country-wide list with 38,200 monthly searches, ahead of gaslighting at 36,300 and love at 34,500.
Anxiety and metaphor weren’t far behind either. If this isn’t evidence that South Africans are spending a lot of screen time trying to make sense of both bad exes and bad grammar, then I don’t know.
Life is tough, but we move
KZN’s pick, though, stands apart from the emotional rollercoaster everyone else seems to be on.
Agile encompasses movement, adaptability, keeping your footing when the ground shifts. Given our track record with flooding and the general unpredictability of life on the coast, it checks out that agility would be top of mind.
A spokesperson for Word Unscrambler pointed out that South Africa’s most-searched definitions in 2026 skew toward abstract concepts rather than concrete objects. People are searching for words that help them process relationships, emotions and the wider world around them.
Here’s how the rest of the provinces stacked up:
- Gauteng: Grace
- North West: Gaslighting
- Limpopo: Narcissist
- Eastern Cape: Resilience
- Free State and Northern Cape: Spiritual
- Mpumalanga: Nonchalant
- Western Cape: Integrity
The methodology
The findings were sorted into three buckets: emotional wellbeing words, values-based and societal words, and personal growth and educational words.
And it’s this last group, alongside terms like resilience, discernment and spiritual, where agile finds its home.
Interestingly, KZN’s neighbours are chasing very different definitions. The Eastern Cape searched for resilience, Mpumalanga went for nonchalant, and Gauteng landed on grace.
So why agile, and why KZN? No idea, but it’s not hard to connect the dots.
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