Every state has a most-Googled word definition in 2026. Colorado’s is… embarrassing
Jul 9, 2026, 3:46 PM
While the rest of America is wrestling with the meaning of “gaslighting,” “fascism” and “democracy,” Coloradans are out here Googling “adjective.” According to a new analysis of Google search data by Word Unscrambler, the most-searched word definition in Colorado so far in 2026 is a term most people learn in third grade — a word that describes a noun, as in “beautiful Colorado,” “explosive diarrhea” or “confused Googler.” The state shares the distinction with exactly one other state: Idaho.
Nationally, “gaslighting” led the way with roughly 286,900 monthly searches, followed by “love” (274,900), “fascism” (264,700), “empathy” (265,600) and “integrity” (262,100). Most states gravitated toward weighty, emotionally charged concepts — Georgia searched “democracy,” Alaska searched “fascism,” Kentucky searched “empathy” and Wyoming, perhaps after a long day on the ranch, searched “gaslighting.” Then there’s Colorado, quietly refreshing its browser to make sure “adjective” means what you thinks it means.
The study, which analyzed Google Trends data from Jan. 1 through July 7 and cross-referenced search volumes through Ahrefs, found that Americans overwhelmingly seek definitions for abstract concepts rather than concrete objects. The researchers categorized the dominant terms into emotional words (gaslighting, love, narcissist), societal words (fascism, democracy, bias) and educational words — which is the bucket Colorado lands in alongside states searching “metaphor,” “philosophy” and “science.” So while it might sound like we’re collectively cramming for a fourth-grade grammar quiz, at least we’re in the educational column and not, say, Delaware, which is Googling “sepsis.”
For what it’s worth, this is the second time this year Unscramblerer.com has made Colorado look like it needs a tutor. The same outfit’s earlier analysis of misspelling data found Colorado’s most-Googled “how do you spell” query was the word “color” — as in, the word literally in our state nickname.
