empathize
Americanverb (used without object)
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empathizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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empathized,
past participle, past
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empathizing
present participle
verb
Usage
What does empathize mean? To empathize with someone is to imagine or try to deeply understand what they are feeling or what it’s like to be in their situation. The ability or the practice of doing this is called empathy, which is often described as the ability to feel what others are feeling as if you are feeling it yourself. So, to empathize is to feel empathy for someone. People who do this are described as empathetic. Some people use the word empathize interchangeably or in overlapping ways with the word sympathize, which generally means to share someone else’s emotions, especially sadness. However, others distinguish the two terms by emphasizing the importance of empathizing with others (feeling their pain) as opposed to sympathizing with them (feeling sorry for them). Example: Having faced many of the same challenges, Nyala is able to empathize with other immigrants and what they go through.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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empathizesimple
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empathizessimple
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have empathizedperfect
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has empathizedperfect
-
am empathizingprogressive
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are empathizingprogressive
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is empathizingprogressive
-
have been empathizingperfect progressive
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has been empathizingperfect progressive
Past
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empathizedsimple
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had empathizedperfect
-
was empathizingprogressive
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were empathizingprogressive
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had been empathizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of empathize
Explanation
To empathize is to understand or relate to someone else's emotional experience. If you get teary-eyed upon hearing about the death of your friend's pet hermit crab, you're probably empathizing with your friend — unless you're just bored to tears by her story. Empathize is often used interchangeably with sympathize, but you'll get no empathy (or sympathy) from usage experts if you confuse the two. When you sympathize with another person, you feel sad that she is suffering, but you don't necessarily relate to her experience. It's easiest to empathize when you've been through a similar experience; for example, if your pet guppy had recently passed away, your friend's hermit crab story would have broken your heart due to empathy.
Vocabulary lists containing empathize
"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 7
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"The Freedom Writers Diary" and "Strength, Courage, and Wisdom"
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"The Interlopers" and "An Interview with the King of Terror"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"This could indicate a close relationship between these human individuals and the animal, an idea that I think is quite easy to empathize with."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
It’s a moral issue that many regular people can empathize with, in part because we are too always being watched now.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
As someone who was a freelance writer for about a year, I can empathize with the desire to keep your life flexible while also feeling destabilized by the lack of structure.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
My hope for this country: As a musician, all we try to do is to empathize with our audience and the composers, and so I think just more empathy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
If we could see one another’s pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
No one understands, explicates and empathizes with mothers and daughters, love and pain, life and all it entails, quite like Ms. Hudes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
But the film empathizes with her to a degree that doesn’t feel earned, inadvertently tipping into morally uneasy territory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” shouldn’t work because it empathizes with the man who will eventually become a genodicial villain.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2023
Park, who loves “Crazy Rich Asians,” empathizes with the burden to represent everybody.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023
“Germany, which was reunified 33 years ago, is a country that understands and empathizes with the issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula,” Yoon said.
From Washington Times ● May 21, 2023
I especially empathized in these moments with the men whose sentences put them in the category of “long-termers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said she empathized with the Cuban people but took issue with her Jamaican counterpart's remarks.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
She played nine holes of a pro-am round Monday with tournament host Annika Sorenstam, who empathized with the difficulty of handling an intense swirl of criticism and support.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
For the first time, I empathized with her desperation.
From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2025
She’d empathized with him, and even said she sometimes heard things coming from the jungle too.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Still, there’s no empathizing with hapless, clueless Joe when he whines, “Do you really think the power is with the police?”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2025
She praised him as empathizing with parents, teachers, coaches, administrators and alumni.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2024
This should not be hard to do, but in a conflict with roots as deep and fraught as this one, even simply empathizing with the pain of other human beings engenders accusations of bias.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
People spent time empathizing with these women before they became plaintiffs bringing legal action against their former boss, something that doesn't typically happen in celebrity lawsuits.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2023
In other words, if I smile and you see me and smile in response — even a microsmile that takes no more than several milliseconds — it’s not just you imitating or empathizing with me.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
