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vicarious

[vahy-kair-ee-uhs, vi-] / vaɪˈkɛər i əs, vɪ- /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

For all of us watching at home—while the show makes stops around the homeland—it offers more than just vicarious joy at learning someone’s family heirloom really is a treasure.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

The instinct to recoil at the killing of a fellow person, and to feel some vicarious pain as we consider the loss, is part of what makes us human.

From Slate • Jan. 9, 2026

Johnson, squeezed into a wig so tight we get a vicarious headache, has pumped up his deltoids to nearly reach his prosthetic cauliflower ears.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 3, 2025

"There is this concept of vicarious trauma where people who are not directly exposed to a trauma but are indirectly exposed to it via looking at images etc, develop PSTD."

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2025

It was probably just peaceful despair and relief at final and complete abnegation, now that Judith was about to immolate the frustration’s vicarious recompense into the living fairy tale.

From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner




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