What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Zeal vs Empathy - What's the difference?

zeal | empathy |

As nouns the difference between zeal and empathy

is that zeal is the fervor or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest while empathy is the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of another person.

zeal

English

Noun

  • The fervor or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.
  • * Dryden
    • Zeal , the blind conductor of the will.
  • * Bible, Romans x. 2
    • I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
  • (obsolete) A zealot.
    • (Ben Jonson)

    Synonyms

    * (fervor) ardor, eagerness, enthusiasm, intensity, passion

    Antonyms

    * (fervor) apathy

    Derived terms

    () * zealot * zealotic * zealotical * zealotry * zealous * zealously * zealousness

    Related terms

    * jealous * jealousy

    Anagrams

    *

    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”.