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  1. empathy love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. See Synonyms at pity.
  2. n. The attribution of one's own feelings to an object.

Wiktionary

  1. n. the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of another person
  2. n. capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding
  3. n. parapsychology, science fiction a paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. understanding and entering into another's feelings

Etymologies

  1. A twentieth-century borrowing of Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia, literally "passion") (formed from ἐν (en-, "in, at") + πάθος (pathos, "feeling")), coined by Edward Bradford Titchener to translate German Einfühlung. The modern Greek word εμπάθεια has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone. (Wiktionary)
  2. en-2 + -pathy (translation of German Einfühlung). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The term empathy first appeared in the work of a German psychologist, Theodore Lipps, toward the end of the nineteenth century.”

    Simon & Schuster: Red Flags or Red Herrings?

  • “For many conservatives, empathy is code for caring too much about, and being too soft on, woman and minorities.”

    Barry Schwartz: Partial Justice

  • “It is legitimate to be afraid that empathy is code for results-oriented jurisprudence, but empathy does not have to be such a codeword.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Legal Ambiguity, Empathy, and the Role of Judicial Power:

  • “GILLESPIE: Well, it was also consistent with President Obama's use of the phrase -- use of the term empathy, and it implied -- it played into a notion that this is going to be a judge who's going to have personal feelings play a role in judgment.”

    CNN Transcript May 31, 2009

  • “You know, I think this is a good conversation for us to be having, and for us to think about what President Obama meant when he used the term empathy, what it means for a judge to have empathy.”

    CNN Transcript Jul 13, 2009

  • “I do not think it correct to use the term 'empathy' as the ability to gauge someone's feelings from a picture," said Dr. Kent Holtorf, founder of Holtorf Medical Group, which has offices in Foster City, Calif., Torrance, Calif. and St. Joseph, Mo.”

    msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines

  • “His confession reveals that while in the past the Living Constitution's acolytes sought to achieve the amorphous goals of "social justice, brotherhood, and human dignity," a President Obama will feed the beast with what's left of individual rights and limited government, all in the name of "empathy" - a code word for something much darker: sacrifice of true constitutionalism to the needs of society's perceived victims”

    The Two Malcontents

  • “His confession reveals that while in the past the Living Constitution's acolytes sought to achieve the amorphous goals of "social justice, brotherhood, and human dignity," a President Obama will feed the beast with what's left of individual rights and limited government, all in the name of "empathy" -- a code word for something much darker: sacrifice of true constitutionalism to the needs of society's perceived victims”

    ChronWatch - Articles

  • “I believe his new founded interest in them was what they call empathy?”

    Corpus of a Siam Mosquito

  • “Most people don't associate the word "empathy" with effective leadership.”

    Forbes.com: News

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. fellow-feeling
  1. sympathy

same context (19)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. compassion
  2. revulsion
  3. selflessness
  1. kindliness
  2. gentleness
  3. willingness
  1. compunction
  2. self-respect
  3. remorse
  1. foresight
  2. homesickness
  3. openness
  1. exasperation
  2. fairness
  3. goodwill
  1. self-restraint
  2. rapport
  3. intuition
  1. comprehension

reverse dictionary (10)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. grok
  2. empathic
  1. caring
  2. psychopath
  1. pull
  2. cold comfort
  1. empathize
  2. understanding
  1. narcissism
  2. empathetic

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. psychology
  1. communication
  1. vccvccv
  1. emotion
  1. MW_woty_2009

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘empathy’

  1. flightless bird

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Lists

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‘empathy’ has been looked up 5613 times, loved by 3 people, added to 74 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 17.