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View synonyms for empathy

empathy

[ em-puh-thee ]

noun

  1. the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the emotions, thoughts, or attitudes of another:

    She put an arm around her friend’s shoulders and stood by her in silent empathy.

  2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself:

    By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.



empathy

/ ˈɛmpəθɪ /

noun

  1. the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings See also identification
  2. the attribution to an object, such as a work of art, of one's own emotional or intellectual feelings about it


empathy

  1. Identifying oneself completely with an object or person, sometimes even to the point of responding physically, as when, watching a baseball player swing at a pitch, one feels one's own muscles flex.


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Derived Forms

  • ˈempathist, noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of empathy1

First recorded in 1900–05; from Greek empátheia “affection,” equivalent to em- “in, within” ( em- 2 ) + path- (base of páschein “to suffer”) + -eia noun suffix ( -ia ); its present meaning translates German Einfühlung

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Word History and Origins

Origin of empathy1

C20: from Greek empatheia affection, passion, intended as a rendering of German Einfühlung, literally: a feeling in; see en- ², -pathy

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Synonym Study

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Example Sentences

You write a lot about celebrities and with a lot of empathy.

Men's Rights Activist "I have a lot of empathy for men, and the pressures that they go through."

The book thus has an attractive double “empathy,” a word that appears in all four parts.

Scenes elicited intimate comments from the cast and crew about whose perspective solicited more empathy or felt more realistic.

But studies show white people simply have less empathy for black people.

So-called 'born' mechanics, maybe, whose understanding of machinery is a form of empathy we've never suspected.

Beyond those simple things lay telepathy, telekinesis, empathy….

But I won the Twenties too, remember, also without knowing a thing about empathy at the time.

Some of the settlers had empathy with the dolphins to a high degree, but Ross's own powers of contact were relatively feeble.

He thought of Geria, of what that dream empathy had suggested.

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empathizeEmpedocles