Fremdscham
German, noun/ˈfʁɛmtʃaːm/
Fremdscham is spelled F-R-E-M-D-S-C-H-A-M (10 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written German, the 96,776th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Fremdscham is a German feminine noun meaning “vicarious embarrassment, secondhand embarrassment (shame felt for actions done by someone else)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “das Gefühl, sich für eine oder mehrere andere Personen beziehungsweise für deren (als peinlich oder ähnlich…”.
What does Fremdscham mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininevicarious embarrassment, secondhand embarrassment (shame felt for actions done by someone else)
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
noun: 1. das Gefühl, sich für eine oder mehrere andere Personen beziehungsweise für deren (als peinlich oder ähnlich empfundene) Handlungen, Verhalten oder dergleichen schämen zu müssen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
How do you pronounce Fremdscham?
- /ˈfʁɛmtʃaːm/
- [ˈfʁɛmtʃaːm]
- [ˈfʁɛmtˌʃaːm]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is Fremdscham in German?
Fremdscham appears about once in every 4 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).