sympathy
sympathy Lexical Profile
sympathy Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Feelings of pity, sorrow, and compassion for someone else's misfortune or suffering.
"The community expressed deep sympathy for the families affected by the flood."
Understanding, mutual affinity, or shared inclination between people; support for or agreement with a cause, opinion, or loyalty.
"Her political sympathies lay firmly with the labor reform movement."
Word Nuance & Usage
Often distinguished from 'empathy': 'sympathy' means feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for another person's hardship, whereas 'empathy' refers to the ability to directly understand and share their emotional experience.
• Rhymes for sympathy
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century from Late Latin sympathia, from Ancient Greek sympatheia ('fellow-feeling, community of feeling'), formed from syn- ('together') and pathos ('feeling, suffering').