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.
In fact, it is backfiring, dusting the world in optimistic, spring-flower pink schadenfreude.
From Salon • May 16, 2026
But there’s no schadenfreude watching her squeeze into a middle seat, no glee in her comeuppance.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026
On social media, the schadenfreude has verged on gleeful, with the public picking up on even the smallest references to confirm their priors and their thirst for justice is palpable.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 7, 2026
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
This schadenfreude, "harm-joy" as the Germans call it, is not satisfying to think of for human nature and it has an inevitable reaction through the unfavorable suggestion of these crimes.
From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
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.
