# Izwi — South African words, daily. > South African words, daily. (iPhone/iPad app by Stewart Burton.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/izwi/id6761016017 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Stewart Burton](https://appshunter.io/developer/1883761849) - Category: Education, Reference - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Age rating: 12+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 52 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-05-17 - Data updated: 2026-09-08 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/izwi/id6761016017/reviews.md ## What is Izwi? Izwi delivers a daily South African word or phrase you probably don't know, straight to your Home Screen. Stoepkakker (Afrikaans, a yappy porch-dog). Sgubhu (isiZulu, a groove or amapiano subgenre). Kuchela (a fiery KZN Indian raw-mango pickle). Sidl'ukotini (isiXhosa for 'dressed to impress', literally 'eating cotton'). This isn't 'lekker / braai / howzit 101.' Izwi is for South Africans who want to discover the words, phrases, sayings, and local gems they don't already know. WHAT YOU GET • A new word or phrase delivered to your Home Screen every day • Home Screen, Lock Screen, and StandBy widgets • 396+ entries across all 11 official SA languages (isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, SA English, Sesotho, Setswana, Sepedi, siSwati, isiNdebele, Tshivenda, Xitsonga), plus Tsotsitaal, Kaaps, and heritage Cape Malay, Tamil, and Yiddish • Full definitions with pronunciation guides, usage notes, social context, and origin stories • Audio pronunciations with a live waveform during playback • Region tags so you know where each term lives • Browse by theme, region, language, or era • Search the full archive • Save your favourites • Build a daily streak and replay your daily-word history • Content maturity filter (family-safe, everyday, or all content) • Daily word reminder notifications SA TRANSLATOR Paste any sentence and Izwi highlights every SA term it knows. Tap a highlight for the full definition. Perfect for decoding WhatsApp messages from your mates, or that one work email from your colleague in Polokwane. TOURIST ESSENTIALS A curated, shareable list of must-know SA words. Show it to any visitor and they'll thank you at the braai. DISCOVER WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW A Durban user discovers Joburg phrases they've never heard. A Capetonian discovers township terms they've heard in passing but never fully understood. An Afrikaans speaker discovers isiZulu-influenced slang from a completely different context. Every entry is curated for cultural depth, regional specificity, and the "I've never heard this one" factor. WIDGET-FIRST DESIGN Izwi was built widget-first. Glance at your Home Screen, Lock Screen, or StandBy display, discover something new, get on with your day. Open the full app when you want to explore, search, save, or share. ABOUT IZWI PRO The free tier gives you the daily word, three saved favourites, three search results, and the last 7 days of history. Izwi Pro unlocks the full 396+ archive, unlimited saves and search, pronunciation audio, all theme lenses, the Test Yourself quiz, premium share cards, and the full daily history. Monthly or annual, with a 3-day free trial. --- Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://izwi-website.pages.dev/privacy-policy.html Subscription: Izwi Pro auto-renews monthly or annually until cancelled. Your Apple ID account is charged at confirmation of purchase. Cancel anytime in your Account Settings on the App Store at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Izwi Pro Monthly | $1.99 | per month | | Izwi Pro Annual | $9.99 | per year | ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.0.5 — 2026-08-31 A big accuracy pass over the dictionary. Izwi's earliest entries were drafted before we required every definition to be checked against an outside source. We have now gone back through all 330 of them, one at a time. - 72 entries corrected, 20 of them rewritten outright - Words that were filed under the wrong language or the wrong spelling are fixed - Sensitive and derogatory terms now carry a warning instead of being presented as friendly slang - Two pronunciation clips re-recorded to match their corrected headword - Every one of those entries now records what it was checked against Some corrections were serious. "Phara" was described as a charming smooth operator when it actually refers to a nyaope addict. "Go nyala" was defined as being disgusted when it simply means to marry. Those are fixed, along with dozens of smaller ones. Where we could not confirm a term, we say so in the entry rather than guessing. A small number of rare sayings are now marked as unconfirmed while we look for a native speaker or a print dictionary to settle them. If you spot something wrong, please tell us. Getting this right matters more to us than looking finished. ### 1.0.4 — 2026-08-26 Improved pronunciation audio. This release rebuilds the pronunciation audio across the app. - isiZulu entries now use a native isiZulu voice, including click consonants - isiXhosa, siSwati and isiNdebele now use a closely related Nguni voice - Sesotho, Setswana, Sepedi, Xitsonga and Tshivenda are now voiced as well - Afrikaans and South African English audio is complete for every entry - 104 entries that previously had no audio now include it - Fixed entries where a bracketed note was read aloud as part of the word 464 of 478 entries now have pronunciation audio. The remaining entries are waiting on voices we do not have yet. ### 1.0.3 — 2026-08-24 Your widget just got smarter: the same daily word now shows its meaning in the morning, a real example at midday and its origin story in the evening. The lock-screen circle is a live streak gauge that warns you when your streak is at risk. New in the app: - Weekly quiz on the words you actually saw this week - free for everyone - Smarter search: accents, synonyms and slang spellings now find the right word - Explore rotates fresh words daily, with Newest and Rare-first sorting - Related words on every entry are now tappable, with "also heard as" spellings - Optional evening reminder when your streak is about to end - Today's real word greets you on the welcome screen - Subscribing no longer asks you to sign in first, and Restore Purchases lives in Settings Plus stacks of fixes: reliable reminders, better small-screen layouts, and accessibility improvements throughout. ### 1.0.2 — 2026-06-12 18 new words and phrases from across South Africa - gusheshe, stokvel, gqom, Mogodu Monday, sbwl and more. The library now tops 440 entries. Fixes and polish: - Clear all in Saved now clears everything, not just the last word - No more repeated welcome pop-ups after subscription renewals - Smoother audio playback and faster preference saving ### 1.0.1 — 2026-05-21 New in this update: - SAFFA section: words and phrases for South Africans living abroad, across the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the UAE - A larger archive with more South African words and expressions - Performance improvements and minor fixes ## More apps by Stewart Burton - [Frenchie Trivia](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/frenchie-trivia/id6760307444) - [Hadeda Havoc](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hadeda-havoc/id6777222298) - [Fettle - Tool Inventory](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fettle-tool-inventory/id6788440954) All apps by Stewart Burton: https://appshunter.io/developer/1883761849 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-08.*