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Stress vs Empathy - What's the difference?

stress | empathy |

As nouns the difference between stress and empathy

is that stress is stress (emotional pressure) while empathy is the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of another person.

stress

English

Noun

  • (countable, physics) The internal distribution of force per unit area (pressure) within a body reacting to applied forces which causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by
  • (countable, physics) externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
  • (uncountable) Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
    • Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.
  • (uncountable, phonetics) The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.
    • Some people put the stress on the first syllable of “controversy”; others put it on the second.
  • (uncountable) Emphasis placed on words in speaking.
  • (uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
    • (Spenser)
  • (Scotland, legal) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

    • Synonyms

    * (phonetics) accent, emphasis * (on words in speaking) emphasis * (on a point) emphasis

    Verb

  • To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
  • To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
  • (informal) To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
  • To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
    • “Emphasis” is stressed on the first syllable, but “emphatic” is stressed on the second.
  • To emphasise (words in speaking).
  • To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.
    • I must stress that this information is given in strict confidence.

    Synonyms

    * (phonetics) emphasise/emphasize * (on words in speaking) emphasise/emphasize * (on a point) emphasise/emphasize, underline

    Derived terms

    * stressed * stress out

    References

    Related terms

    * strain * strait * strict * stringent * stringency ----

    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”.