How to Use schadenfreude in a Sentence

schadenfreude

noun
  • The schadenfreude was off the scale.
    — Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 14 May 2026
  • Yessiree, that’s a five-star schadenfreude feast.
    — Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Looks like the in-flight menu was a hefty serving of schadenfreude.
    — Emma Stefansky, The Hive, 4 Mar. 2017
  • But more than anything, their stories are a source of plain old schadenfreude.
    — New York Times, 9 Oct. 2021
  • There's schadenfreude at play in that enjoyment, too, of course.
    — Emily Dreyfuss, WIRED, 4 June 2019
  • The review set off a wave of gossip and no small measure of schadenfreude.
    — Gabe Ulla, Town & Country, 8 Sep. 2016
  • This one has an extra dash of schadenfreude for Packers fans.
    — Jr Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6 Apr. 2018
  • There’s a bit of déjà vu and hopefully not too much schadenfreude going on here.
    — Adrian Bridgwater, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2023
  • She was dragged through the mud in a case of collective media schadenfreude.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 30 Oct. 2024
  • One part of the game's appeal is its element of schadenfreude.
    — Mickey Butts, WIRED, 1 Sep. 2001
  • Headlines about the anti-vax volte-face come with a detectable whiff of schadenfreude.
    — Eleanor Cummins, The New Republic, 15 Sep. 2021
  • But schadenfreude is not a strategy.
    — David Ignatius, Washington Post, 18 June 2026
  • This would be chiefly the inflicting of pain, toilets, and schadenfreude.
    — Michael Hofmann, The New York Review of Books, 28 Sep. 2023
  • And when their high-flying brands fell back to earth over the next few years, the schadenfreude was relentless.
    — Maggie McGrath, Forbes, 28 June 2022
  • And then there was the schadenfreude of those who had already decamped to greener pastures.
    — Leo Schwartz, Fortune, 30 June 2025
  • And wags can’t help but indulge in a new round of schadenfreude at Damon’s expense.
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 15 June 2022
  • For workers, that has meant bemusement—and in some cases, a dose of schadenfreude as well.
    — Te-Ping Chen, WSJ, 20 July 2021
  • This movie is why the Germans invented the word schadenfreude.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2024
  • The temporary schadenfreude can’t erase the writing on the Jazz’s wall.
    — Andy Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 May 2022
  • The only slice of schadenfreude here is Belichick must be enjoying this least of all.
    — Dave Hyde, Sun Sentinel, 26 Jan. 2026
  • But there’s no schadenfreude watching her squeeze into a middle seat, no glee in her comeuppance.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr. 2026
  • With a hint of schadenfreude, Democrats warned Tuesday’s chaos could be a sign of things to come this session.
    — Dallas News, 3 Jan. 2023
  • The true mark of friendship, according to Munn, is a little bit of schadenfreude.
    — Mackenzie Schmidt, PEOPLE.com, 5 July 2017
  • If there is schadenfreude among ships, the YM Wish was perhaps not feeling it.
    — New York Times, 29 Mar. 2021
  • Humor responds to a misfortune with sadism and schadenfreude.
    — Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
  • The busts offer tales of danger and vengeance, and there’s nothing the internet loves more than schadenfreude.
    — Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz, 24 July 2019
  • In fact, the entire tabloid industry has been built on the public’s hunger for scandal and schadenfreude.
    — Angelica Kalika, The Conversation, 2 June 2026
  • To Uber’s many critics, that likely has a delicious ring of schadenfreude.
    — David Z. Morris, Fortune, 24 Sep. 2017
  • The thing about schadenfreude is that the freude (joy) is usually savored when the schaden (the bad thing) happens to someone else.
    — Kim Masters, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Apr. 2022
  • The public has swelled with pride — and a good dose of schadenfreude — while watching the rich and powerful fall from grace for being, well, jerks.
    — New York Times, 26 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'schadenfreude.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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