Words / W / General

weltschmerz

noun/ˈvɛltʃmɛːts/

C2CEFR level
92/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

A weary sadness felt at the perceived shortcomings of the world.

His poems are steeped in a fashionable weltschmerz, mourning a world that never quite matches the ideal.

Similar: disillusion, angst

Origin: German Welt 'world' + Schmerz 'pain', coined by Jean Paul.

Topic: world-weariness in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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