Ingratitude is the failure to appreciate or acknowledge kindness someone has shown you. When you experience ingratitude, you've done something generous or helpful for someone, and they don't recognize it or thank you for it. A friend might show ingratitude by borrowing your favorite book and never mentioning it again, not even to say thanks. A student might show ingratitude toward a teacher who spent extra time helping them, treating that effort as if it meant nothing.

The opposite of gratitude, ingratitude feels disappointing because it ignores effort and generosity. When someone helps you with homework, drives you somewhere special, or gives you a thoughtful gift, showing gratitude means recognizing what they did. Ingratitude means acting like those things don't matter or were somehow owed to you.

Sometimes people show ingratitude without meaning to, simply forgetting to say thank you because they're distracted. But persistent ingratitude can become a character trait. An ungrateful person consistently fails to appreciate what others do for them, taking everything for granted. King Lear, in Shakespeare's famous play, suffers terribly from the ingratitude of two daughters he had given everything to. Their ingratitude wasn't just forgetting to say thanks. It was cruelty disguised as indifference.