Definition of schadenfreude in English:

noun

• [mass noun] Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

  ‘a business that thrives on Schadenfreude’

  ‘a frisson of Schadenfreude’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In particular, it ignores those emotions which involve higher cognitive processes, such as jealousy, envy, and Schadenfreude.’
  • ‘With a quiver of delightful Schadenfreude, it turned out none had ever backed the PR firm's campaign.’
  • ‘Allow me to savour this moment of Schadenfreude.’
  • ‘The 17th century European enterprise of selling and buying tickets to gawk at those confined to psychiatric institutions established there was money to be made from Schadenfreude.’
  • ‘There is a thin line between Schadenfreude, which I take to be measured satisfaction in the discomfiture of opponents, and the sin of morose delectation.’
  • ‘How ironic that a German footballer should provide us with sport's finest example of Schadenfreude.’
  • ‘This unremitting focus on just one race participant is understandable, but the hint of Schadenfreude in the tone was unmistakable.’
  • ‘Is it possible, given the Schadenfreude around his demise, that even if he were innocent, none of us would care?’
  • ‘If it's ‘all a game,’, then why is he no longer even interested in reading the newspaper for his daily dose of Schadenfreude?’
  • ‘The Schadenfreude is indecent, but the confident historical assertion is still less justified.’
  • ‘With that in mind, I present to you Great Moments in Sports Schadenfreude.’
  • ‘Actually, the amount of Schadenfreude from every quarter - from the rich, from the poor, from the arts establishment, from the ignorant - has been overwhelming.’
  • ‘I am at one with the European press, whose expressions of Schadenfreude in place of human sympathy are laid out here by the BBC.’
  • ‘But skittishness about affirmative action does not begin to explain the degree of Schadenfreude on display over Raines's resignation.’
  • ‘From that time on, we have seen most of our allies stand aside and engage in Schadenfreude over our painful bog-down in the region.’
  • ‘All this is a bonus for the former BBC royal correspondent, who admits to a frisson of Schadenfreude when watching her replacement shiver outside those crested gates.’
  • ‘Their deepest feelings about banks, whatever they may be, will be rewarded by a good double strength shot of Schadenfreude.’

  Synonyms

  delight, pleasure, happiness, joy, joyfulness, gladness, elation, euphoria, exhilaration, cheerfulness, amusement, mirth, mirthfulness, merriment, joviality, jollity, jocularity

  View synonyms