schadenfreude
noun
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Ever a popular lookup on our site, schadenfreude refers to the joy you might feel at another person’s pain. It’s a compound of the German nouns Schaden, meaning “damage,” and Freude, meaning “joy.” Schadenfreude was a favored subject in Germany by the time it was introduced to English in the mid-1800s; discussed by the likes of Schopenhauer, Kant, and Nietzsche, schadenfreude was showing up in psychology books, literature for children, and critical theory. In English, the word was used mostly by academics until the early 1990s, when it was introduced to more general audiences via pop culture. In a 1991 episode of The Simpsons, for example, Lisa explains schadenfreude to Homer, who is gloating at his neighbor’s failure; she also tells him that the opposite of schadenfreude is sour grapes. “Boy,” he marvels, “those Germans have a word for everything.”
Examples of schadenfreude in a Sentence
Patrick George, The Atlantic, 18 June 2025
What To Know The German word schadenfreude means taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune.
—Jesus Mesa, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 June 2025
A lot of schadenfreude has floated around the recent U.S. Justice Department doubling down on accusations about Google’s search and ads business.
—David Doty, Forbes.com, 22 May 2025
Leon Bailey had a shot blocked, close to the goal-line, by his own team-mate Pau Torres, providing a note of schadenfreude to Villa’s afternoon.
—Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for schadenfreude
Cite this Entry
“Schadenfreude.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/schadenfreude. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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