What's the word for the feeling when you secretly enjoy someone else's failure?
The word for enjoying someone else's misfortune is schadenfreude, from the German Schaden (harm) and Freude (joy). It's common, it's different from wishing someone harm, and it often arises when someone's success seemed undeserved. Dutch has a similar word, leedvermaak. Naming it isn't approving of it.
- The word is schadenfreude: German for 'harm-joy'.
- It is not the same as wishing someone harm.
- It's most common when someone's success seemed undeserved.
- Dutch has a similar word: leedvermaak.
- Naming the feeling isn't approving of it.
Schadenfreude, which Merriam-Webster defines as enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others, is a German compound of Schaden (harm) and Freude (joy) that English has used since the nineteenth century. It is a common feeling and differs from malice because it involves no intent to cause harm. It often arises when the person's success seemed undeserved. Other languages have close equivalents, including Dutch leedvermaak.
Someone you don't particularly like has had a bad week, and when you read about it you feel a small, private satisfaction. You feel slightly guilty, then check the news again to make sure you read it right. The feeling is common, and it has a name.
What is the word for enjoying someone else's misfortune?
The word is schadenfreude, from German Schaden, meaning harm, and Freude, meaning joy: literally 'harm-joy'. It means pleasure taken in someone else's misfortune. English borrowed it in the nineteenth century; Merriam-Webster dates its first known English use to 1868. English had a rare native equivalent, 'epicaricacy', but it never caught on, and schadenfreude became the standard word.
Is schadenfreude the same as wishing someone harm?
Schadenfreude is reactive, not active. You did not cause the misfortune. You did not wish for it specifically. It happened, and when it happened, you felt something. This distinguishes it from cruelty or malice, which involve intent. The schadenfreude moment is more passive — a kind of unbidden gratification when the universe seems to have noticed someone the way you noticed them. The feeling is small. The fact that there is a name for it suggests how common it is.
Why do people feel schadenfreude?
The most reliable trigger for schadenfreude is the failure of someone who seemed to be skating on something undeserved — too lucky, too smug, too elevated above their actual contribution. When their luck reverses, your moral universe feels briefly restored. The feeling is partly a reaction to perceived unfairness. This is why public figures who fall from grace produce so much of it — the mass schadenfreude at celebrity scandals is a kind of distributed sense-making about who deserved their position in the first place.
Are there other words for schadenfreude in other languages?
Several languages have words in the same neighborhood. Dutch 'leedvermaak', literally 'suffering-amusement', is the standard Dutch equivalent. Japanese internet slang has 'meshiuma', short for a phrase meaning that someone else's misfortune makes the rice taste good. Hebrew has 'simcha la'ed', joy at another's calamity, a phrase with roots in the Book of Proverbs. None are flattering, but naming the feeling precisely is the first step to thinking about it clearly instead of just feeling guilty.
Does naming schadenfreude mean it's okay to feel it?
Some people resist learning the word because they think naming the feeling validates it. The opposite is true. When the feeling is unnameable, it sits in the back of your head as a vague guilt and a vague discomfort. When it has a name, you can examine it. You can notice when it shows up. You can decide whether it is in proportion or out of proportion. You can move on from it instead of being stuck in shame about it. The word is a tool for handling the feeling, not an endorsement of it.
Sources
There's a word for that. Let's find it.
Describe a feeling you cannot quite name — the messy emotional state, the bittersweet mix, the thing there should be a word for — and Name That Feeling looks for language that comes close. An ordinary English phrase when that's the honest answer, a word from another language when one genuinely fits, and it says plainly where even the best match falls short.
Found this useful? Link to it.
https://deftbrain.com/guides/wellness/whats-the-word-for-the-feeling-when-you-secretly-enjoy-someone-elses-failure
Free to read, no account, no paywall — link away.