sympathy
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
sympathy/ˈsɪmpəθi/
▶noun (pl. sympathies)
- 1 feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
■ (one's sympathies) condolences.
- 2 understanding between people; common feeling.
■ a favourable attitude.
■ (in sympathy) relating harmoniously to something else; in keeping.
- 3 the state or fact of responding in a way corresponding to an action elsewhere.
– origin C16: via L. from Gk sumpatheia, from sumpathēs, from sun- ‘with’ + pathos ‘feeling’.
usage: On the difference between sympathy and empathy, see usage at empathy.
'sympathy' also found in these Oxford entries:
affinity
- ah
- alienate
- angle
- commiserate
- condole
- condolence
- dead
- dear
- empathy
- fellow feeling
- Freemasonry
- gee
- hard
- hard-luck story
- indifferent
- insensate
- martyr
- move
- nature
- poor
- relate
- repulsive
- sob story
- sorry
- sympathetic
- sympathize
- touch
- tough
- uncaring
- well
