vicarious embarrassment
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.57 in modern English
33
Scrabble Score
22
Letters
7
Syllables
13
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The uncomfortable sympathetic feeling experienced while watching someone else embarrass themselves.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "It is noted that vicarious embarrassment does not necessarily indicate the presence of an embarrassed other."
- "The same brain regions, the study found, are implicated in vicarious embarrassment – watching President Obama give an awkward hug of his own to departing press secretary Jay Carney, say – as they are when empathizing with the physical pain of others."