# sympathy

Pronunciation: say "SIM-puh-thee" /ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/

## Noun

1. Sorrow or pity felt for someone else who is suffering or in distress.
   - Simple: A feeling of sadness for someone who is hurting or in trouble.
   - _He spoke with genuine sympathy to the grieving widow at the service._
   - _Her sympathy for the stranded travelers prompted her to offer them shelter._
2. A formal expression of pity or sorrow for another person's misfortune.
   - Simple: Words or actions that show you feel sorry for someone's bad luck or loss.
   - _The president extended his sympathy to the victims' families in a public statement._
   - _Colleagues sent messages of sympathy after the accident at the plant._
3. The ability to share in the feelings of another person.
   - Simple: The power to understand and share what another person is feeling.
   - _His deep sympathy allowed him to sense exactly what his patients feared._
   - _Without sympathy, a counselor cannot truly grasp a client's pain._
4. Support for, agreement with, or approval of someone's ideas or goals, or loyalty to them.
   - Simple: A feeling of support for or agreement with someone's ideas or goals.
   - _Her political sympathies lay firmly with the reformers._
   - _The journalist made no secret of his sympathy for the independence cause._
5. Support given in the form of shared feelings or opinions.
   - Simple: Help or backing that comes from sharing someone's feelings or opinions.
   - _Several unions walked out in sympathy with the dismissed workers._
   - _Readers expressed their sympathy for the campaign by signing the petition._
6. A connection between people based on similar thoughts or feelings, or a tendency to share them.
   - Simple: A shared way of thinking or feeling that connects two people.
   - _A natural sympathy of taste drew the two composers together._
   - _They argued for hours, yet a basic sympathy of values kept them in accord._
7. A connection through which a change affecting one person or thing produces a matching change in another.
   - Simple: A close link between things, so that a change in one causes a matching change in the other.
   - _The bridge began to sway in sympathy with the marching soldiers' steps._
   - _Stock markets across the region rose in sympathy with the recovery abroad._
8. A mutual or parallel susceptibility, or a condition produced by it.
   - Simple: A matching reaction in one thing that is caused by a change in another.
   - _Pluck the lower string and its octave will vibrate in sympathy._
   - _The patient's healthy eye watered in sympathy with the injured one._
9. In art, a harmonious relationship among elements, such as the shapes or colors in a painting.
   - Simple: A pleasing match of shapes or colors in a work of art.
   - _The artist created a subtle sympathy between the curve of the hills and the arc of the sky._
   - _Reviewers admired the sympathy of tone that unified the portrait._

## Origin

Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathīa ("feeling in common"), from Ancient Greek sumpatheia ("fellow feeling"). It breaks down into sym- ("together") plus -pathy ("feeling"), and it displaced the native Old English efnþrōwung, literally "co-suffering."

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