What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Cherish vs Sympathize - What's the difference?

cherish | sympathize |

As verbs the difference between cherish and sympathize

is that cherish is to treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid while sympathize is to show sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected.

cherish

English

Verb

  • To treat with tenderness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid.
  • *, chapter=12
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished .}}
  • To hold dear; to embrace with interest; to indulge; to encourage; to foster; to promote; as, to cherish religious principle.
  • (obsolete) To cheer, gladden.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vi:
    • Her merry fit she freshly gan to reare, / And did of ioy and iollitie deuize, / Her selfe to cherish , and her guest to cheare [...].

    sympathize

    English

    Verb

    (North America)
  • To show sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected.
  • * Addison
    • Their countrymen sympathized with their heroes in all their adventures.
  • To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.
  • * Buckminster
    • The mind will sympathize so much with the anguish and debility of the body, that it will be too distracted to fix itself in meditation.
  • To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.
    • (Dryden)

    Usage notes

    Used similarly to empathize, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, (term) is stronger and more intimate, while sympathize is weaker and more distant; see . Further, the general “agree, accord” sense of sympathize is not shared with (term).