empathetic

American  

[em-puh-thet-ik] / ˌɛm pəˈθɛt ɪk /

Also empathic

adjective

1. 

   relating to or characterized by empathy, the psychological identification with the emotions, thoughts, or attitudes of others.

   One of the great strengths of the school is our sensitive, empathetic counseling staff.

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Usage

What does empathetic mean? Empathetic means having or tending to have empathy—the ability or practice of imagining or trying to deeply understand what someone else is feeling or what it’s like to be in their situation. Empathy is often described as the ability to feel what others are feeling as if you are feeling it yourself. To feel empathy for someone is to empathize. People who do this are described as empathetic. Some people use the word empathetic interchangeably or in overlapping ways with the word sympathetic, which generally means sharing or tending to share emotions with someone else, especially sadness. However, others distinguish the two terms by emphasizing the importance of being empathetic toward others (feeling their pain) as opposed to being sympathetic toward them (feeling sorry for them). A less common variant of empathetic is empathic. Example: Having faced many of the same challenges, Nyala is empathetic to the struggles of immigrants.

Other Word Forms

• nonempathic
  adjective
• empathetically
  adverb
• empathically
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of empathetic

First recorded in 1930–35; empath(y) + -etic

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Explanation

An empathetic person is someone who can share another person's feelings. If you tell an empathetic person that your heart is broken, she might touch her own heart and gaze at you sadly through moist eyes. Empathetic is a recent term; it comes from empathy, which was coined by the German philosopher Rudolf Lotze in 1858. Lotze believed that when you look at a work of art, you project your own sensibilities onto it. So if you feel sad when you see a painting of a woman weeping over a dying lover, that's because you can imagine what it's like to lose someone you love. To make the word, Lotze turned to the ancient Greek empatheia, which means "passion."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

empathetic

To be sure, they also connected when they spied green shoots of the culture they wanted—one that was ambitious but also empathetic and transparent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

But what “Lanterns” does with John Stewart delineates the divide between sympathetic and empathetic storytelling.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

People feel empathetic embarrassment for robots in uncomfortable situations.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

The late monarch has been described as an inclusive, transparent and empathetic "people's king" who modernised the Norwegian monarchy.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

Instead, they were empathetic because many of the Freedom Writers felt just as alienated and misunderstood as Klebold and Harris before they found their voices.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers

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Related Words

• compassionate
• sensitive
• sympathetic

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