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Commiseration vs Empathy - What's the difference?

commiseration | empathy |

As nouns the difference between commiseration and empathy

is that commiseration is the act of commiserating; sorrow for the wants, afflictions, or distresses of another; pity; compassion while empathy is the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of another person.

commiseration

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of commiserating; sorrow for the wants, afflictions, or distresses of another; pity; compassion.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The departure was not unduly prolonged.

    empathy

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia empathy)
  • the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of another person
  • capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding
    • She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.
  • (parapsychology, science fiction) a paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions

    • Usage notes

    Used similarly to sympathy, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathy is stronger and more intimate, meaning that the subject understands and shares an emotion with the object – as in “I feel your pain” – while (term) is weaker and more distant – concern, but not shared emotion: “I care for you”.