empathy
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.
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.
Origin of empathy
1synonym study For empathy
Words that may be confused with empathy
Words Nearby empathy
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use empathy in a sentence
It’s understandable that people would lack the empathy or the foresight to realize parents have a particular set of challenges.
The complaints of the entitled workers of Silicon Valley | Adam Lashinsky | September 8, 2020 | FortuneI hope this drive towards human empathy continues well beyond this moment in time.
How this year’s 40 Under 40 are surviving the pandemic | jonathanvanian2015 | September 7, 2020 | FortuneInstead, she proposed approaching anti-maskers with empathy.
The post-pandemic focus on employee safety wasn’t just because of a wave of CEO empathy.
That has a lot to do with the company’s strong sense of empathy.
You write a lot about celebrities and with a lot of empathy.
Daphne Merkin on Lena Dunham, Book Criticism, and Self-Examination | Mindy Farabee | December 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMen's Rights Activist "I have a lot of empathy for men, and the pressures that they go through."
The Beyoncé Manifesto: Quotes on Nihilism and Feminism | Amy Zimmerman | December 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe book thus has an attractive double “empathy,” a word that appears in all four parts.
Richard Ford’s Artful Survivalist Guide: The Return of Frank Bascombe | Tom LeClair | November 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTScenes elicited intimate comments from the cast and crew about whose perspective solicited more empathy or felt more realistic.
But studies show white people simply have less empathy for black people.
The Question in St. Louis County: Can Whites Empathize With Blacks? | Sally Kohn | August 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSo-called 'born' mechanics, maybe, whose understanding of machinery is a form of empathy we've never suspected.
Accidental Flight | Floyd L. WallaceBeyond those simple things lay telepathy, telekinesis, empathy….
Earthmen Bearing Gifts | Fredric BrownBut I won the Twenties too, remember, also without knowing a thing about empathy at the time.
Planet of the Damned | Harry HarrisonSome of the settlers had empathy with the dolphins to a high degree, but Ross's own powers of contact were relatively feeble.
Key Out of Time | Andre Alice NortonHe thought of Geria, of what that dream empathy had suggested.
Earthsmith | Milton Lesser
British Dictionary definitions for empathy
/ (ˈɛmpəθɪ) /
the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings: See also identification (def. 3b)
the attribution to an object, such as a work of art, of one's own emotional or intellectual feelings about it
Origin of empathy
1Derived forms of empathy
- empathist, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for empathy
[ (em-puh-thee) ]
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.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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