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Sorrowful vs Sympathy - What's the difference?

sorrowful | sympathy |

As an adjective sorrowful

is of a person, full of sorrow; exhibiting sorrow; sad; dejected; distressed; distraught.

As a noun sympathy is

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

sorrowful

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of a person, full of sorrow; exhibiting sorrow; sad; dejected; distressed; distraught.
  • Producing sorrow; exciting grief; mournful; lamentable; grievous.
  • sorrowful accident
  • * 1900 , L. Frank Baum , The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23
  • She threw her arms around the Lion's neck and kissed him, patting his big head tenderly. Then she kissed the Tin Woodman, who was weeping in a way most dangerous to his joints. But she hugged the soft, stuffed body of the Scarecrow in her arms instead of kissing his painted face, and found she was crying herself at this sorrowful parting from her loving comrades.

    Synonyms

    * See also * mournful, lamentable, grievous * See also

    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)