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Empathize vs Sympathy - What's the difference?

empathize | sympathy |

As a verb empathize

is to feel empathy for another person.

As a noun sympathy is

a feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion.

empathize

English

Alternative forms

* empathise (British, Canadian, Australian)

Verb

(en-verb)
  • to feel empathy for another person
  • * 2001, Alias (TV, episode 1.03)
  • Must have been [...] devastating when Kenny was killed. But I want you to know that you can trust me. I understand you. I empathize .

    Usage notes

    Used similarly to sympathize, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathize is stronger and more intimate, while (term) is weaker and more distant; see .

    sympathy

    Noun

    (sympathies)
  • A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion.
  • The ability to share the feelings of another.
  • A mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
  • * 1997 , Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault'', page 67, ''The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865)
  • 'Sympathy' likened anything to anything else in universal attraction, e.g. the fate of men to the course of the planets.
  • Tendency towards or approval of the aims of a movement.
  • Usage notes

    * Used similarly to empathy, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, (term) is stronger and more intimate, while sympathy is weaker and more distant; see .

    Antonyms

    * contempt (context-dependent)

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l), (l)