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From Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathia, from Ancient Greek συμπάθεια (sumpátheia), from σύν (sún, with, together) + πάθος (páthos, suffering).



sympathy (plural sympathies)

  1. A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion.
  2. The ability to share the feelings of another.
  3. A mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
      'Sympathy' likened anything to anything else in universal attraction, e.g. the fate of men to the course of the planets.
  4. Tendency towards or approval of the aims of a movement.
    Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Used similarly to empathy, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathy is stronger and more intimate, while sympathy is weaker and more distant; see empathy: usage notes.


Derived terms[edit]

