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

They display an innate curiosity and astonishing degrees of empathy, intelligence and perceptiveness, with subjects ranging from public and social institutions to cultural and specialized spaces and the minutiae of human interactions.

From Los Angeles Times

"There's empathy there for a start, and there's also then bringing people back to reality," added Cris, aged 59.

From BBC

That she is the mother of one of morning TV’s most beloved personalities adds an ache to our empathy.

From Salon

Those two brain areas are known to play a role in decision-making and in empathy, or distinguishing the feelings of others from our own.

From BBC

Large language models like Copilot or ChatGPT aren’t suited to being used as financial advisers because they are the digital equivalent of sociopaths—smooth, persuasive and devoid of empathy.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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