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Sympathy vs Reflection - What's the difference?

sympathy | reflection |

As nouns the difference between sympathy and reflection

is that sympathy is a feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion while reflection is the act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.

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)

    reflection

    English

    Alternative forms

    * reflexion

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of reflecting or the state of being reflected.
  • The property of a propagated wave being thrown back from a surface (such as a mirror).
  • Something, such as an image, that is reflected.
  • (senseid) Careful thought or consideration.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=But Richmond, his grandfather's darling, after one thoughtful glance cast under his lashes at that uncompromising countenance appeared to lose himself in his own reflections .}}
  • An implied criticism.
  • (label) The process or mechanism of determining the capabilities of an object at run-time.
  • Derived terms

    * reflectional * reflectionless * self-reflection

    See also

    * refraction * diffraction