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Who popularized the term empathy in English in the early 1900s?

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empathy

American  

[em-puh-thee] / ˈɛm pə θi /

noun

1. the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the emotions, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

   She put an arm around her friend’s shoulders and stood by her in silent empathy.

2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself.

   By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.

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empathy British  

/ ˈɛmpəθɪ /

noun

1. the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings See also identification

2. the attribution to an object, such as a work of art, of one's own emotional or intellectual feelings about it

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empathy Cultural  

1. Identifying oneself completely with an object or person, sometimes even to the point of responding physically, as when, watching a baseball player swing at a pitch, one feels one's own muscles flex.

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Usage

What does empathy mean? Empathy is 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 empathy interchangeably or in overlapping ways with the word sympathy, which generally means the sharing of emotions with someone else, especially sadness. However, others distinguish the two terms by emphasizing the importance of having empathy for others (feeling their pain) as opposed to having sympathy for them (feeling sorry for them). Example: Having faced many of the same challenges, Nyala has empathy for immigrants and what it feels like to go through those challenges.

Synonym Usage

See sympathy.

Other Word Forms

• empathist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of empathy

First recorded in 1900–05; from Greek empátheia “affection,” equivalent to em- “in, within” ( see em- ²) + path- (base of páschein “to suffer”) + -eia noun suffix ( see -ia); its present meaning translates German Einfühlung

Explanation

Use empathy if you're looking for a noun meaning "the ability to identify with another's feelings." When Bill Clinton famously told people "I feel your pain" during his 1992 election campaign, some praised and others ridiculed him for displaying empathy, the sharing or understanding of feelings. Empathy is different from sympathy, which is pity or sorrow for others' misfortunes. They share a common root in -pathy, from the Greek pathos, "feeling." Where they differ is in their prefixes: sym- means "with," while em- means "in." If you can empathize with someone, it's because you have been in their place: you've "walked a mile in their shoes," as the saying goes.

Example Sentences

Empathy, Morrell continues, “helps us to understand the ‘impacts a decision will have on others’ ” and leads to “legitimate, justified democratic decision-making that truly takes all into consideration.”

From Slate • Jan. 2, 2026

Empathy is often confused with sympathy, which is more about feeling without sharing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 21, 2025

Empathy often means sharing other’ feelings to understand their problems.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 21, 2025

Empathy means we try to understand each other’s experiences — not agree, not embrace, but understand.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 16, 2025

But new scales of achievement, for example the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test, had emerged as criteria by which to judge.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Related Words

• affinity
• compassion
• identification
• insight
• pity
• rapport
• understanding
• warmth