sympathy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/
rhymes: -ɪmpəθi
Forms: form: sympathies
Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathīa (“feeling in common”), from Ancient Greek σῠμπᾰ́θειᾰ (sŭmpắtheiă, “fellow feeling”), from σῠμπᾰθής (sŭmpăthḗs, “affected by like feelings; exerting mutual influence, interacting”) + -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, “-y”, nominal suffix). Equivalent to sym- (“acting or considered together”) + -pathy (“feeling”). Displaced native Old English efnþrōwung (equivalent to even-throeing; literally, “co-suffering”).
Senses: examples: text: If you want sympathy you’ll find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. Sympathy may pay well in the short term, but if you cash in on sympathy, it will take everything from you in the long run.
ref: 2018, Sergeant first class Greg Stube, Conquer Anything: A Green Beret’s Guide to Building Your A-Team:
text: And all told, Trump’s second term has actually led to the most sympathy for migrants on record in the 21st century, per Gallup. Fully 79% of Americans now say immigration is a “good thing,” compared with 64% last year.
ref: 2025 July 13, Aaron Blake, “Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring”, in CNN:
synonyms: word: compassion
word: pity
word: bowels
word: commiseration
word: compassion
word: empathy
word: fellow feeling
word: mercy
word: pity
word: remorse
word: rue
word: ruth
word: sympathy
word: tenderheartedness
word: loving-kindness
glosses: A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.
examples: text: While you'll probably have her sympathies if your condominium association wants to preapprove your storm door, you'll need to work harder for her support if your boss at the music megastore demands you grow a goatee to help lend the place some indie cred.
ref: 2004 September 10, Edward Tverdek, “When Libertarians Go Shopping”, in Chicago Reader:
synonyms: word: compassion
word: pity
word: bowels
word: commiseration
word: compassion
word: empathy
word: fellow feeling
word: mercy
word: pity
word: remorse
word: rue
word: ruth
word: sympathy
word: tenderheartedness
word: loving-kindness
glosses: A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.
The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
synonyms: word: compassion
word: pity
word: bowels
word: commiseration
word: compassion
word: empathy
word: fellow feeling
word: mercy
word: pity
word: remorse
word: rue
word: ruth
word: sympathy
word: tenderheartedness
word: loving-kindness
glosses: A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.
The ability to share the feelings of another.
examples: text: Oh vvhat a ſimpathie of vvoe is this, / As farre from helpe, as Lymbo is from bliſſe.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], signature F, recto:
glosses: Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
glosses: Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
Support in the form of shared feelings or opinions.
examples: text: Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.
glosses: Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
Feeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.
examples: text: He observed, also, the frequent sympathy of volcanic and terremotive action in remote districts of the earth's surface, thus showing how deeply seated must be the cause of these convulsions.
ref: 1858, William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences:
text: A peculiarity of were-animals is the sympathy that exists between their animal form and that of the human with whom it is connected.
ref: 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 121:
text: The solution to coach riding defects, at least, seems to require much more co-operative practical experiment by all engineering departments to achieve better sympathy between the vehicle body, its undercarriage and the track on which it rides.
ref: 1960 December, “The riding of B.R. coaches”, in Trains Illustrated, page 706:
text: Sympathy likened anything to anything else in universal attraction, e.g. the fate of men to the course of the planets.
ref: 1997, Chris Horrocks, “The Renaissance Episteme”, in Introducing Foucault, Totem Books; Icon Books, →ISBN, page 67:
glosses: An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
glosses: An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
Mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it.
topics: art
arts
glosses: An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
Artistic harmony, as of shape or colour in a painting.
Derived terms: dissympathy
have no sympathy
mechanical sympathy
powder of sympathy
sympathetic
sympathism
sympathist
sympathize
sympathise
sympatho-
sympath-
sympathy card
sympathy is between shit and syphilis
sympathy strike
sympathy verdict
unsympathy