Definition of schadenfreude in English:

noun

• Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

  ‘a business that thrives on Schadenfreude’

  ‘a frisson of Schadenfreude’

  More example sentences

  • ‘But skittishness about affirmative action does not begin to explain the degree of Schadenfreude on display over Raines's resignation.’
  • ‘If it's ‘all a game,’, then why is he no longer even interested in reading the newspaper for his daily dose of Schadenfreude?’
  • ‘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.’
  • ‘I am at one with the European press, whose expressions of Schadenfreude in place of human sympathy are laid out here by the BBC.’
  • ‘The Schadenfreude is indecent, but the confident historical assertion is still less justified.’
  • ‘Their deepest feelings about banks, whatever they may be, will be rewarded by a good double strength shot of Schadenfreude.’
  • ‘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.’
  • ‘Is it possible, given the Schadenfreude around his demise, that even if he were innocent, none of us would care?’
  • ‘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.’
  • ‘Allow me to savour this moment of 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.’
  • ‘This unremitting focus on just one race participant is understandable, but the hint of Schadenfreude in the tone was unmistakable.’
  • ‘How ironic that a German footballer should provide us with sport's finest example 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.’

  Synonyms

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

  View synonyms