Empathy Definition

ĕmpə-thē
noun
The projection of one's own personality into the personality of another in order to understand the person better; ability to share in another's emotions, thoughts, or feelings.
Webster's New World
The projection of one's own personality into an object, with the attribution to the object of one's own emotions, responses, etc.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Empathy

Noun

Singular:
empathy
Plural:
empathies

Origin of Empathy

  • A twentieth-century borrowing of Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ἐν (en-, “in, at”) + πάθος (pathos, “feeling”)), coined by Edward Bradford Titchener to translate German Einfühlung. The modern Greek word εμπάθεια (empátheia) has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone.

    From Wiktionary

  • en– –pathy (translation of German Einfühlung)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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