Was it G20? Potholes? 67? Rage Bait? Corruption? What ‘Word of the Year’ really defined us in 2025?
South Africa (28 December 2025) – When PanSALB announced “G20” as South Africa’s Word of the Year, it felt like déjà vu. Another official choice that echoed the news cycle but not necessarily the lived experience of the country. People laughed, debated and disagreed, not because the term wasn’t relevant but because it didn’t feel like the heartbeat of 2025.
It didn’t sound like the queues, the WhatsApp groups, the Saturday volunteer shifts, the neighbours helping neighbours. And it made us wonder: if this is the word that’s supposed to define us, then who gets to decide what story we’re telling?
On the 23rd of December 2025, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), in partnership with Focal Points, revealed that “G20” had been chosen as South Africa’s ‘Word of the Year’. After reviewing a shortlist that included ‘Government of National Unity’, ‘Tariffs’, ‘Femicide’, and the ‘Madlanga Commission’, the decision was framed as the result of metrics, trends and prevalence across media and public discourse. Given the scale of conversation around South Africa’s role within the G20 this year, it makes sense in a technical way. It is topical. It is politically significant. It was unavoidable in conversation.
But the question that kept coming up for us is, does topical always equal meaningful?
The reaction online suggested otherwise. The comments ranged from cynical to comedic, with South Africans questioning whether this word truly captured the essence of 2025.
“Seriously, who comes up with this kak?”
“Are you sure it’s not potholes?”
“Corrupt. That’s the noun and the verb.”
Some responses were humorous, some were hectic (things we cannot repost here), but most came from a place of wanting the story of South Africa to feel like it belongs to the people living it… not just the institutions reporting on it.
When you look back at the history of South Africa’s Word of the Year, a trend emerges. The selections lean heavily into political and social turmoil:
• 2017: State Capture
• 2018: Land Expropriation Without Compensation
• 2019: Zondo Commission
• 2020: Lockdown
• 2021: No official selection
• 2022: Load-shedding
• 2023: Russia-Ukraine
• 2024: No official selection
• 2025: G20
These words reflect where we have been but they rarely reflect who we are.
We broadened our view for a moment and looked at global language trends. Around the world, multiple dictionaries and language institutions made their own selections for 2025. There was no consensus but these were the leading choices:
• Dictionary.com: 67
• Oxford University Press: rage bait
• Merriam-Webster: slop
• Cambridge Dictionary: parasocial
All undeniably relevant and all revealing something about the world in 2025. But none of them felt like a fit for us. For South Africa. 67 maybe works. But does it really?
So, we turned inward. We opened our own archives. We revisited every story you sent us, every headline that moved you and every update that made the country pause. We scanned a year of Good Things Guy reporting with a single question in mind: If we could choose a ‘Word of the Year’ based on the good, based on the lived reality of kindness, courage and connection, what would it be?
That is when it started to appear. In schools and charities. In hospitals and sports arenas. In WhatsApp groups and crowdfunding pages. In the quiet corners where the news cameras never seem to go.
2025 was the year South Africans didn’t wait to be asked to show up for each other; they just did. It was the year we watched teenagers build apps to help their communities. Teachers used their own salaries to help pupils. Neighbours doing good things for neighbours. Volunteers giving all their time to others. Creatives shared platforms. Medical staff offered care long after shifts ended. Every day, people became lifelines for each other in moments where it mattered most.
Then something remarkable happened… the world noticed.
A global study by Remitly analysed generosity across 25 countries and found that South Africans ranked as the most generous nation on Earth, driven not by wealth, but by empathy and a deep sense of shared humanity. The data measured emotional support, community involvement, interpersonal care and “the willingness to put others first.” It cited an “instinctive sense of shared responsibility” and a culture where “quiet acts of support are deeply ingrained.”
When we placed that research alongside the stories we told this year, there was only one word that made sense.
Our Word of the Year is: Generosity.
Not as a trend or as a counter-argument. Not as a feel-good marketing exercise. But because it is the truest reflection of what we witnessed. It encapsulates the heart of this country more accurately than any policy term or geopolitical headline. It is the word that showed up without us looking for it. And then revealed itself everywhere once we did.
We are not pretending everything is perfect. We know the headlines. We feel the impact. We all face the same challenges. But we also walk among people who prove, again and again, that kindness is not conditional. That care is not cancelled. That generosity is not a luxury; it is a language spoken fluently here. If this year has taught us anything, it is that South Africa is not defined by what hurts us but by how we heal each other.
South Africans are the world’s most generous nation. That is a fact… and ‘generosity’ is our official 2025 ‘Word of the Year’.
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