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Understand vs Empathize - What's the difference?

understand | empathize |

As verbs the difference between understand and empathize

is that understand is (lb) to be aware of the meaning of while empathize is to feel empathy for another person.

understand

English

Alternative forms

* understaund (obsolete)

Verb

  • (lb) To be aware of the meaning of.
  • :
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I understand not what you mean by this.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith
    • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}
  • To believe, based on information.
  • :
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War.
  • To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.
  • :
  • :In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:
  • ::
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.
  • *
  • *:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
  • To stand under; to support.
  • :(Shakespeare)

    • Usage notes

    * Common objects of this verb include text'', ''word(s)'', ''sentence(s)'', ''note(s) , etc. * Rarely, the obsolete past tense form understanded'' may be found, e.g. in the ''Book of Common Prayer'' and ''Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church .

    Synonyms

    * (to know the meaning) apprehend, comprehend, grasp, know, perceive, pick up what someone is putting down, realise, grok * (to believe) believe

    Antonyms

    * misunderstand

    Derived terms

    * I don’t understand * understandable * understanding * understood

    See also

    * explain * why

    External links

    * *

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words English irregular verbs English words prefixed with under-

    empathize

    English

    Alternative forms

    * empathise (British, Canadian, Australian)

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • to feel empathy for another person
  • * 2001, Alias (TV, episode 1.03)
    • Must have been [...] devastating when Kenny was killed. But I want you to know that you can trust me. I understand you. I empathize .

    Usage notes

    Used similarly to sympathize, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathize is stronger and more intimate, while (term) is weaker and more distant; see .