Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A relationship or an affinity between people or things in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other.
- n. Mutual understanding or affection arising from this relationship or affinity.
- n. The act or power of sharing the feelings of another.
- n. A feeling or an expression of pity or sorrow for the distress of another; compassion or commiseration. Often used in the plural. See Synonyms at pity.
- n. Harmonious agreement; accord: He is in sympathy with their beliefs.
- n. A feeling of loyalty; allegiance. Often used in the plural: His sympathies lie with his family.
- n. Physiology A relation between parts or organs by which a disease or disorder in one induces an effect in the other.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Feeling identical with or resembling that which another feels; the quality or state of being affected with feelings or emotions corresponding in kind if not in degree to those which another experiences: said of pleasure or pain, but especially of the latter; fellow-feeling; commiseration; compassion. In writers not quite modern an occult influence of one mind (or body) by another is meant, but this meaning is now almost forgotten.
- n. An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural disposition which makes two persons agreeable each to the other; mutual or reciprocal inclination or affection; sympathetic interest: in this sense commonly followed by with: as, to have sympathy with a person in his hopes, aspirations, or aims.
- n. In physiology and pathology: That state of an organ or a tissue which has a certain relation to the condition of another organ or tissue in health and disease; a related state of the vital manifestations or actions in different organs or tissues, such that when one part is excited or affected others are also affected; that relation of the organs and parts of a living body to each other whereby a disordered condition of one part induces more or less disorder in another part: as, for example, the pain in the brow caused by taking a draught of cold water into the stomach, the pain in the right shoulder arising from disease of the liver, or the irritation and vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
- n. The influence which the physiological or pathological state of one individual has in producing the same or an analogous state in another at the same time or in rapid succession, as exemplified in the hysterical convulsions which affect a number of women on seeing one of their companions suffering from hysteria, or the yawning produced by seeing an other yawn.
- n. Physical action at a distance (so used by old writers against astrology, who argue that the influence of the stars is not physical sympathy and not moral sympathy, and therefore does not exist at all): as, the sympathy between the lodestone and iron.
- n. In acoustics, the fact, condition, or result of such a relation between two vibratile bodies that when one is thrown into vibration the other tends to vibrate in a similar or related way, in consequence of the vibrations communicated to it through the air or some other medium.
- n. Affinity, harmony.
- To sympathize.
Wiktionary
- n. A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion.
- n. The ability to share the feelings of another;
- n. A mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Feeling corresponding to that which another feels; the quality of being affected by the affection of another, with feelings correspondent in kind, if not in degree; fellow-feeling.
- n. An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural temperament, which causes persons to be pleased, or in accord, with one another.
- n. Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion.
- n. The reciprocal influence exercised by organs or parts on one another, as shown in the effects of a diseased condition of one part on another part or organ, as in the vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
- n. The influence of a certain psychological state in one person in producing a like state in another.
- n. rare A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other.
- n. Similarity of function, use office, or the like.
WordNet 3.0
- n. sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)
- n. a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other
- n. an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion
Etymologies
- From Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathia, from Ancient Greek συμπάθεια (sumpatheia), from σύν (sun, "with, together") + πάθος (pathos, "suffering"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin sympathīa, from Greek sumpatheia, from sumpathēs, affected by like feelings : sun-, syn- + pathos, emotion; see kwent(h)- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is my belief that she is trying to gain sympathy from the Republican conservative base, as the "poor Sarah, everyone picks on me.”
“Some play on the image of the troubled and traumatized veteran, even using it to win sympathy from a judge or jury.”
“To paraphrase his satyrical entry at the Reagan Wing, Doug alleges that Mike! faked or made up this DUI or at least preemptively announced it as a devious ploy to gain sympathy from the electorate.”
“My main sympathy is for the woman and children of Sodom.”
“In 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in 1759, Adam Smith boldly recast the question of virtue in terms of what we now call empathy but which he called sympathy.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Magical Mystery Show of Consciousness
“Perhaps he liked it; — but any man endowed with that power of appreciation which we call sympathy, would have felt it to be as cold as though it had come from a figure on a glass window.”
“Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.”
“The moment in the story where their sympathy is aroused is the swallowing of the kids, because the children do realize the possibility of being disposed of in the mother's absence.”
“She is filled with curiosity, which she calls sympathy with the simple, stern religion; and this Müller, who goes about preaching, is now at Tübingen.”
“Do you not find that they merely talk and express what they call their sympathy? ”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sympathy’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Words to research
balkanize, obstreperous, dysphoria, euphoria, sinecure, abstruse, chin music, colophon, signature, notwithstanding, nullity, nullity of a dete... and 26 more...
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syn-, sym-, syl-
united; acting or considered together
sympathy, syllogism, synthesis, synonym, synaesthesia, synecdoche, synagogue, syzygy, symbiosis, system, idiosyncratic, idiosyncracy and 3 more...
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Emotions
affection, longing, cheerfulness, pride, optimism, relief, success, suprise, irritation, rage, hope, love and 31 more...
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Holli
Cancer, Mercury, water, moon, dark, emotion, nostalgia, angst, brooding, isolation, shadow, corner and 145 more...
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Pretty Words
Words that sound pretty.
ethereal, ephemeral, iridescent, shimmer, wisp, whisper, charisma, crescent, azure, mystery, fantasy, miracle and 142 more...
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-pathy
denoting feelings; denoting disorder; relating to curative treatment
hydropathy, neuropathy, sympathy, antipathy, empathy, apathy, psychopathy
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Miscellany
avid, shard, begone, gibes, romantic, inspiration, dashing, affliction, daring, elocution, hegemony, supercalifragilis... and 97 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sympathy.

reesetee Desk llamas and desk turtles? I'm envious. Sep 12, 2008
chained_bear I have one of these! Oh, I love it! It's almost as nice as my desk llama. :) Sep 12, 2008
elisheba and here she is, right on my desktop :-))
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/6314/p10200712vk1.jpg">
although you can't see it, i assure you she's vibrating in sympathy with my every keyboard stroke :-D Sep 12, 2008
reesetee Heehee! What a nice note. :-) Sep 12, 2008
elisheba "to vibrate in sympathy" (usually referred to musical instruments, e.g. strings).
p.s. i love my tiny wooden turtle whose head is hypersensitive and oscillates with the slightest vibrations :-) Sep 12, 2008
milosrdenstvi In that case unprecendented
Single I shall live and die,
I shall have to be contented
With your heartfelt sympathy.
-- several characters at different moments in Gilbert & Sullivan's "Patience"; it is pronounced there to rhyme with 'die', which apparently used to be a valid pronunciation. Aug 20, 2008