‘Gaslighting’ Is the Word Americans Most Want Defined in 2026

The word Americans are Googling most in 2026 isn’t “love” or “money”; it’s “gaslighting.” For the record, “gaslighting” comes from the title of a 1938 play and the movies based on that play and means “psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories.”A new analysis from Unscramblerer.com, a word game and unscrambling website, tracked Google search data from January 1 through July 7, 2026, to rank the most-searched word definitions in the United States. Using Google Trends and Ahrefs keyword data, researchers compiled 130 search variations — from “define love” to “what is the definition of empathy” — to build a national and state-by-state picture of the words Americans most urgently want explained.“Gaslighting” led the national list with roughly 287,000 monthly searches, narrowly edging out “love” at about 275,000. “Fascism,” “empathy,” and “integrity” rounded out the top five.A spokesman for Unscramblerer.com grouped the findings into three categories in a statement: “Emotional words: gaslighting, love, empathy, narcissist, anxiety, stress, and apathy. Societal words: fascism, democracy, justice, equity, culture, socialism, republic, bias, propaganda, and inflation. Educational words: metaphor, hyperbole, adjective, science, philosophy, and fiction. People are searching for definitions to better understand personal experiences and public conversations.”State-level data added some texture. Indiana and Wyoming both led with “gaslighting.” Georgia and New Mexico most searched “democracy,” while Alaska and Oregon led with “fascism.” Texas searched “republic” most, and West Virginia led with “integrity.” Not every state fit the political pattern, though — Montana’s top definition was “gouache” (an opaque watercolor paint), Maine’s was “ursine” (meaning bear-like), and Delaware’s was “sepsis,” a medical term for the body’s extreme, life-threatening response to an infection. Taken together, the national list reads less like a vocabulary quiz and more like a record of which concepts Americans are encountering — and struggling to pin down. As the Unscramblerer.com spokesman put it, “One of the most striking findings is that Americans’ top searched definitions in 2026 are dominated by abstract concepts rather than objects. From love and justice to democracy and integrity, people are searching for words that help them understand ideas, values, and human behavior.”

‘Gaslighting’ Is the Word Americans Most Want Defined in 2026

‘Gaslighting’ Is the Word Americans Most Want Defined in 2026

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