What is a word that means delighting in another person's success?
Executive summary
A concise English equivalent for “delighting in another person’s success” does not exist as a single, universally accepted word, but several terms from other languages and specialized registers capture the concept: mudita (Buddhist/Pali), freudenfreude (a neo‑German coinage used in psychology reporting), compersion (relationship studies), and symhedonia or “vicarious joy” in academic discussions [1] schadenfreude-freudenfreude.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[2] [3] [4]. Each carries a distinct cultural and conceptual shading and recent psychological coverage treats the phenomenon as beneficial to social bonds and well‑being when genuinely experienced [5] [2].
1. Mudita: the classic technical term from Buddhist ethics
Mudita, a Pali and Sanskrit word often translated as “sympathetic” or “appreciative joy,” names the deliberate practice of taking joy in others’ happiness and success and is repeatedly offered as the closest single‑word match by language communities and subject‑matter answers online [6] [7] [8]. Writers who compare antonyms to schadenfreude point to mudita as the precise conceptual opposite — joy derived from another’s flourishing rather than pleasure at their fall — and the term appears in English discussions of emotion precisely because it fills a lexical gap [8] [7].
2. Freudenfreude and the psychological framing used in popular media
Journalists and psychologists have recently popularized the pseudo‑German coinage freudenfreude to label the social‑glue effect of feeling pleasure at someone else’s success, and researchers link it to “positive empathy” and behaviors like helping and resilience [2] [5]. Coverage in outlets such as the New York Times frames freudenfreude as more of a working hypothesis in research—useful for capturing a familiar experience—but the term itself is a neologism rather than an established single‑word entry in standard English lexicons [2] [5].
3. Compersion, symhedonia and related English options
In English‑language subcultures and specialist fields, compersion (coined in the 1990s within polyamory discourse) denotes wholehearted participation in another’s happiness, especially where their pleasure does not benefit the observer directly; symhedonia and empathic or sympathetic joy appear in psychological and language forums as formal alternatives [3] [4]. Lay usage often defaults to phrases like “I’m happy for her” or “vicarious joy,” and some commentators recommend “vicarious” as the most widely understood adjective even if it requires a noun or phrase to be fully clear [7] [8].
4. Other cultural words and a note on firgun
Multiple languages offer compact words for this goodwill: Hebrew slang firgun captures unselfish happiness at another’s accomplishments, and Yiddish naches expresses pleasure in a protégé’s or child’s success; these loanwords surface in lexical surveys as culturally specific fills for the English gap [1] [7]. Such borrowings illustrate how social norms shape vocabulary: where a culture foregrounds communal uplift, terms for appreciative joy are more readily lexicalized than in cultures emphasizing individual competition [1].
5. Linguistic and empirical caveats readers should know
Authoritative overviews note there is “no common English term” that precisely means pleasure at another’s happiness, and many of the candidate terms are either borrowings, neologisms, or technical terms from religious and subcultural contexts rather than mainstream English vocabulary [1]. Empirical reporting also warns that the capacity for such joy varies by context (zero‑sum competitions, upbringing, mental health) and that researchers treat freudenfreude/mudita as tied to positive empathy with demonstrable social benefits in some studies, not as a universal constant [5] [2].
6. Takeaway — the best word choices and when to use them
For a single lexical recommendation, mudita is the most precise term used in philosophy and contemplative traditions to mean delighting in another’s success; freudenfreude is a popular psychological coinage useful in journalistic contexts; compersion names a closely related emotional stance in relationship discourse; and in ordinary speech, “vicarious joy” or simply “I’m happy for them” will communicate the idea clearly to most audiences [6] [2] [3] [8]. Because English lacks a universally adopted single‑word equivalent, choice among these depends on tone: use mudita for formal or cross‑cultural clarity, freudenfreude when invoking recent psychological discussions, compersion in relationship contexts, and plain phrasing for everyday communication [1] [2] [3].