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.

Related Words

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” ( em- ² ) + path- (base of páschein “to suffer”) + -eia noun suffix ( -ia ); its present meaning translates German Einfühlung

Example Sentences

Carillo, who has covered more than a dozen Olympic Games in some capacity, brought experience, steadiness and empathy to the broadcast.

From Salon

The screenwriter says that to him, a TV is like an "empathy box" that sits in the corner of a room and encourages people to speak about their problems.

From BBC

A toxic boss, she says, is different as "they deliberately lack both empathy and often self-awareness".

From BBC

He said: "They've shown no empathy towards us as a family, they've just produced document after document in trying to justify their maintenance records and abiding by the procedures in place."

From BBC

But “My Son the Playwright” demonstrates the value of a writing practice that finds empathy for even the most impossible of characters.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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