1890–95; < German, equivalent to Schaden harm + Freude joy
When another person's bad luck secretly makes you feel good, that's schadenfreude. Your brother's rejection from a college that also rejected you might give you a twinge of schadenfreude. If you're fired from your difficult job, no one can blame you for a bit of schadenfreude as you watch your replacement struggle with your old tasks. This German word perfectly captures that satisfied feeling everyone gets at times when someone else runs into misfortune. In German, Schadenfreude literally means "damage-joy," and it's always spelled with a capital S. The word came into English use in the 1920s, and you can spell it with a small s if you prefer.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If the world was looking to extend its schadenfreude, Paltrow was all too happy to be the one to push it further.
From Salon • Dec. 22, 2025
But much of the film’s popularity probably stemmed from that reliable magnet of interest, schadenfreude, as the Siegels’ dream of living like American royalty ran aground when the Great Recession hit.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 10, 2025
But schadenfreude is the American way, especially if it happens on national television.
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2025
Even if “Sirât” proves half-empty instead of half-full, witnessing another audience gasp at its mean shocks will be sweet schadenfreude.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2025
Let us go, you & I, to re-invent the damage and call it discovery, to uniformly lift up our cry in schadenfreude, meek before Great Cities that bend as fenders to the glare.
From Unmanned by Oliver, Stephen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
