ill feeling; grudge; discomfort
Refers to a lingering negative emotion or unresolved tension between people, often from a past incident. Common in phrases like わだかまりがある (to have a grudge/ill feeling) and わだかまりが残る (a sense of discomfort remains).
There is still some ill feeling between the two of them.
The talk cleared up the bad feelings.
Usually written in kana; the kanji form 蟠り is rare and may not be recognized by many readers.
Rare kanji spelling; the character 蟠 is not commonly used in modern Japanese.
Derived from the verb わだかまる (to lie coiled; to lurk), which originally referred to something coiled up inside. The noun form came to mean a lingering, knotted feeling in the heart.