noun, plural -thies, adjective | 1. | harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another. |
| 2. | the harmony of feeling naturally existing between persons of like tastes or opinion or of congenial dispositions. |
| 3. | the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, esp. in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration. |
| 4. | sympathies,
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| 5. | favorable or approving accord; favor or approval: He viewed the plan with sympathy and publicly backed it. |
| 6. | agreement, consonance, or accord. |
| 7. | Psychology. a relationship between persons in which the condition of one induces a parallel or reciprocal condition in another. |
| 8. | Physiology. the relation between parts or organs whereby a condition or disorder of one part induces some effect in another. |
| 9. | expressing sympathy: a sympathy card; a sympathy vote. |
s sympathetic (sym- sym- + páth(os) suffering, sensation + -ēs adj. suffix) + -ia -y 3 
sym·pa·thy (sĭm'pə-thē) n. pl. sym·pa·thies
[Latin sympathīa, from Greek sumpatheia, from sumpathēs, affected by like feelings : sun-, syn- + pathos, emotion; see kwent(h)- in Indo-European roots.] |
sympathy sym·pa·thy (sĭm'pə-thē)
n.
A relation between parts or organs by which a disease or disorder in one induces an effect in the other.
Mental contagion, as in yawning induced by seeing another person yawn.
Mutual understanding or affection arising from a relationship or an affinity, in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other.