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Sympathy vs Remorse - What's the difference?

sympathy | remorse |

As nouns the difference between sympathy and remorse

is that sympathy is a feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion while remorse is a feeling of regret or sadness for doing wrong or sinning.

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)

    remorse

    Alternative forms

    * (obsolete)

    Noun

  • A feeling of regret or sadness for doing wrong or sinning.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 14 , author=Steven Morris , title=Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.}}
  • * 1897 , ,"
  • Failure, disgrace, poverty, sorrow, despair, suffering, tears even, the broken words that come from lips in pain, remorse that makes one walk on thorns, conscience that condemns . . . —all these were things of which I was afraid.
  • (obsolete) Sorrow; pity; compassion.
  • * 1597 , , King John , act 4, sc. 3,
  • This is the bloodiest shame,
    The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,
    That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage
    Presented to the tears of soft remorse .

    Synonyms

    * (regret or sadness for doing wrong) agenbite, compunction, contrition, penitence, repentance, self-reproach * See also

    Derived terms

    (Terms derived from "remorse") * buyer's remorse * remorseless

    Hypernyms

    * regret, sadness

    See also

    * apology