Schadenfreude

//ˈʃɑː.dənˌfɹɔɪ.də// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else's misfortune. uncountable, usually

    "But it is Schadenfreude, a mischievous delight in the misfortunes of others, which remains the worst trait in human nature."

  2. 2
    delight in another person's misfortune wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
despiteepicaricacyepicaricacygleelulzspite

Example

More examples

"I couldn't resist a touch of schadenfreude when he was defeated so heavily in the election."

Etymology

An unadapted borrowing from German Schadenfreude (“joy in the misfortune of others”), from Schaden (“damage, misfortune”) + Freude (“joy”). The word gained popularity in English in the late 20th c. and likely entered mainstream usage through an episode of The Simpsons (more in citations).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.