# sympathetic

Pronunciation: say "sim-puh-THET-ik" /ˌsɪm.pəˈθɛt.ɪk/

## Adjective

1. Feeling, showing, or marked by understanding and concern for another person's suffering or situation.
   - Simple: Feeling or showing that you care about someone else's pain or trouble.
   - _He listened with a sympathetic ear as she described her difficult week._
   - _Her sympathetic response made the grieving patient feel truly understood._
2. Inclined to approve of or feel favorable toward an idea, cause, or action.
   - Simple: Liking an idea or plan and wanting to support it.
   - _Several senators proved sympathetic to the proposed reforms._
   - _The editor was sympathetic to the movement and gave it generous coverage._
3. Having qualities that draw the liking and warm regard of other people.
   - Simple: Easy to like, pleasant and likeable as a person.
   - _Her quick wit and kindness made her a thoroughly sympathetic colleague._
   - _Despite his rough manners, the old sailor was oddly sympathetic._
4. Relating to the division of the autonomic nervous system that arises near the spinal cord and prepares the body for stress, balancing the parasympathetic nerves.
   - Simple: Relating to the body's nerves that speed up the heart and prepare you for danger.
   - _Activation of the sympathetic nervous system raises heart rate and dilates the pupils._
   - _Surgeons must work carefully near the sympathetic chain running alongside the spine._
5. Relating to musical tones that arise when one string vibrates in response to another, or to strings tuned to resonate freely when other notes sound.
   - Simple: Relating to musical sounds made when one string vibrates because another string nearby is being played.
   - _The viola d'amore produces a shimmering sound thanks to its sympathetic strings._
   - _Luthiers tune the sympathetic strings to match the instrument's main scale._
6. Relating to or producing an effect that arises through a natural affinity, interdependence, or mutual connection between things.
   - Simple: Happening because two things are linked or affect each other.
   - _Engineers feared a sympathetic detonation if one stored shell exploded near the rest._
   - _The two pendulums settled into a sympathetic swing, each nudging the other._
7. In magical belief, denoting a supernatural connection or power that arises because two objects share the same form or some other correspondence.
   - Simple: In magic, a hidden link between two things that look alike or match in some way.
   - _Practitioners of sympathetic magic burned a wax figure to harm a distant enemy._
   - _The ritual relied on a sympathetic bond between the carved totem and the hunted deer._
8. Designed in a sensitive and fitting way, so it suits its setting or purpose well.
   - Simple: Made or planned in a careful way that fits well with what is around it.
   - _The architects produced a sympathetic extension that blended with the historic facade._
   - _Planners praised the sympathetic restoration of the riverside mill._

## Noun

9. A nerve of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
   - Simple: A nerve that belongs to the body's fight-or-flight system.
   - _The cervical sympathetic carries fibers that widen the pupil._
   - _Anatomists mapped each sympathetic branching toward the abdominal organs._

## Origin

First recorded in the mid 17th century meaning "relating to an affinity or paranormal influence," from Latin sympathēticus. It can be analyzed as sympathy plus the suffix -etic ("pertaining to"), and it replaced the native Old English efnþrōwiende.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sympathetic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).