DictionaryAI

compassion

kuhm-PASH-uhn/kəmˈpæʃ.ən/

Verbcompassions, compassioning, compassioned

3 meanings of compassion

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    A strong wish to help someone when you see that they are suffering.

    Like feeling someone else's pain and wanting to make it stop.

    She felt great compassion for the homeless man and gave him her coat.

    Their teacher showed real compassion when the students were struggling.

    Similarsympathy, empathy, kindness, mercy, tenderness

    Oppositeindifference, cruelty, callousness, heartlessness

    Note
  2. 2
    noununcountable
    Deep awareness of suffering (your own or someone else's) that makes you want to ease it.

    Like being a kind friend to yourself when you are hurting.

    Learning to feel compassion for yourself means being kind about your own mistakes.

    A good counselor helps people show compassion for their own pain, not just for other people's.

    Similarkindness, understanding

    Oppositeindifference, harshness

    Note
  3. 3
    verbobsolete
    To feel sorry for someone because they are suffering.
    O heavens, can you hear a good man groan / And not relent, or not compassion him?
    c. 1588, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”Here, compassion means to feel pity for someone who is suffering.
    The widow's tears flowed wildly. / But Oh! a harbinger of life approached — / God, manifest in flesh — compassioned her, / And bade her weep no more.
    1836, William A. Brewer, The Widow's SonHere, compassioned means felt pity for her in her sadness.

    Similarpity, commiserate, rue, condole

    Note

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Origin

It comes from Latin words meaning 'to suffer together', from com- ('together') and pati ('to suffer'). It reached English through Old French.