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Empath vs Telepath - What's the difference?

empath | telepath | see also |

As nouns the difference between empath and telepath

is that empath is one who has the ability to sense emotions; someone who is empathic or practises empathy while telepath is a person with telepathic ability; capable of reading the thoughts of others around them.

As a verb telepath is

to communicate by thought; to use telepathy.

empath

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who has the ability to sense emotions; someone who is empathic or practises empathy.
  • (science fiction, parapsychology) A person with extra-sensory empathic ability, capable of sensing the emotions of others around them in a way unexplained by conventional science and psychology.
  • * 1957 , Hans Stefan Santesson (editor), Fantastic Universe
    • She was the empath who would betray empaths if she got the chance. So they'd tried to fix things so that she didn't get the chance.
  • * 2005 , Catherine Asaro, Schism
    • How did a complete stranger know he was an empath ? He rarely if ever talked about it, even to his closest friends. It made people uneasy.
  • * 2007 , Ellen Dugan, Natural Witchery
    • The aura may, in fact, linger around objects or places and that "lingering energy" is what an empath senses and intuits.

    See also

    * telepath

    telepath

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (parapsychology, science fiction) A person with telepathic ability; capable of reading the thoughts of others around them.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (parapsychology, science fiction) To communicate by thought; to use telepathy.
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year = 1896 , date = October , magazine = Journal of the Society for Psychical Research , title = A Diary of Telepathic Impressions , url = http://archive.org/details/journalofsociety07sociuoft , volume = 7 , issue = 132 , page = 300 , passage = Jan. 3rd, 1984.—I was in the front sitting-room and dare not go out of the room for the cold; my plants were awfully dry, and hearing E. [her niece] in the kitchen, I telepathed to her to bring me in some water. She at once came with a jug full and asked if I would water the plants. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year = 1947 , date = June , first = Raymond A. , last = Palmer , authorlink = Raymond A. Palmer , magazine = , title = Observatory , url = , volume = 21 , issue = 6 , page = 9 , passage = He does not attribute one single experience to what we might term a "ghost" for lack of a better term. Witches, poltergeists, goblins, gremlins, fairies, dwarfs—all of them are real, physical, alive, being either the real thing or the teleported or telepathed image of the real thing. }}
  • * 1973 February, , Iron Man , number 55:
    • Thanos: "Did you not suspect I could tell you had been telepathing ?"

    See also

    * empath * technopath * cyberpath