sympathize

American  

[sim-puh-thahyz] / ˈsɪm pəˌθaɪz /

especially British, sympathise

verb (used without object)

• sympathizes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sympathized,
  past participle,  past
• sympathizing
  present participle

1. to be in sympathy or agreement of feeling; share in a feeling (often followed bywith ).

2. to feel a compassionate sympathy, as for suffering or trouble (often followed bywith ).

3. to express sympathy or condole (often followed bywith ).

4. to be in approving accord, as with a person or cause.

   to sympathize with a person's aims.

   Synonyms:

   support, back, favor, approve, understand

5. to agree, correspond, or accord.

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sympathize British  

/ ˈsɪmpəˌθaɪz /

verb

1. to feel or express compassion or sympathy (for); commiserate

   he sympathized with my troubles

2. to share or understand the sentiments or ideas (of); be in sympathy (with)

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Usage

What does sympathize mean? To sympathize with someone is to feel sympathy for them—to share their emotions, especially sadness. This is usually understood to mean that you feel bad for them because they are in a negative situation. The word sympathize can also mean to offer one’s sympathies or condolences, such as to someone who is in mourning. Sympathize also sometimes means to be supportive of or loyal to someone or something, such as a leader or cause, as in Many working class voters sympathize with the senator’s platform. The word sympathizer is especially used to refer to someone who sympathizes in this way. Someone who sympathizes can be described as sympathetic. Sympathetic can also be used to describe someone who causes you to sympathize with them. Some people use the word sympathize interchangeably or in overlapping ways with the word empathize, which means to have empathy—to imagine or try to deeply understand what someone is feeling or what it’s like to be in their situation. 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: I’ve experienced the same thing, so I can sympathize.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sympathizer
  noun
• presympathize
  verb (used without object)
• nonsympathizing
  adjective
• unsympathized
  adjective
• unsympathizing
  adjective
• nonsympathizingly
  adverb
• sympathizingly
  adverb
• unsympathizingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• sympathizing
  present
• sympathized
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sympathize
  simple
• sympathizes
  simple
• have sympathized
  perfect
• has sympathized
  perfect
• am sympathizing
  progressive
• are sympathizing
  progressive
• is sympathizing
  progressive
• have been sympathizing
  perfect progressive
• has been sympathizing
  perfect progressive

Past

• sympathized
  simple
• had sympathized
  perfect
• was sympathizing
  progressive
• were sympathizing
  progressive
• had been sympathizing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sympathize
  simple
• will have sympathized
  perfect
• will be sympathizing
  progressive
• will have been sympathizing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sympathize

First recorded in 1580–90; from Middle French sympathiser; from sympath(ie) sympathy + -iser -ize

Explanation

When you sympathize, you care about how someone else feels during a time of trouble. If you sympathize with your brother, whose best friend is moving away, you understand why he's feeling sad. When you sympathize, you care, so you might sympathize with the victims of an earthquake in a foreign country or a child who's waiting for her turn on a merry-go-round. Sympathize comes from the Greek sympathes, have a fellow feeling for. It's sometimes confused with empathize, which means putting yourself in someone else's shoes, rather than simply caring about them.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sympathize sympathizes sympathized sympathizing

“I don’t really sympathize with people that complain because the Dodgers do all the right things.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

You can’t help but sympathize with her desire to skip the coming crisis in her industry.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

Still, the movie seems to sympathize with many Americans’ misplaced faith in the remoteness of nuclear war.

From Slate ● Mar. 13, 2026

"It's quite easy to make a version of that story where he's a sort of toxic incel male conspiracy theorist nut who you don't really sympathize with," he told AFP.

From Barron's ● Mar. 1, 2026

Two or three people who were not there during the fracas poked their heads in at the door to sympathize but that made Mrs. Turner madder.

From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

She sympathizes with customers, noting that it feels “yucky to lose the human.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

While he sympathizes with the occasional need to chill at home, he also notes it's unsettling that it's a wildly popular discourse.

From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2025

While he sympathizes with the financial challenges restaurants are facing, he said the charge “really kind of stung.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2024

Bryant sympathizes with the people who call in orders on Valentine’s Day.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024

Of her three children, Celia sympathizes most with her son.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García

While others flooded her comments to agree, some chimed in to question why so many women identified and even sympathized with the villain.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Johnson sympathized with the department’s lack of manpower but said, in a perfect world, wildlife officials would be able to flush the bear out and relocate it somewhere safer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2025

In 2023, according to New York Times polling, 34 percent of Democrats sympathized with Israel and 31 percent with Palestinians.

From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2025

Many people sympathized with the workers and even called for Costco to start revoking memberships.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2024

“I sympathized with him a lot, reading his letters,” Sasha said.

From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater

It’s a thing the court can do to say, We get to decide whom we’re sympathizing with and how we’re presenting all these things.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026

Hitchcock beguiles us into sympathizing with the psychopathic Bruno.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

While fully sympathizing with her grief, many women have called Erika Kirk out for not being fully transparent in her self-portrait.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2025

Protesters gather outside the facility regularly, and in May, Casper Mayor Bruce Knell apologized for a Facebook post about the clinic some interpreted as sympathizing with the fire attack.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 21, 2023

I guess that’s his way of sympathizing with me.

From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh

Related Words

• commiserate
• comprehend