empathy

em·pa·thy

Use empathy in a sentence

Empathy is sharing the joy at a friends wedding.

noun

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand the thoughts feelings or emotions of someone else.

An example of empathy is feeling the same amount of excitment as a friend, when they tell you they're getting married.

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"empathy." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy>.

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empathy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy

empathy

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
the projection of one's own personality into an object, with the attribution to the object of one's own emotions, responses, etc.

Origin of empathy

from Classical Greek empatheia, affection, passion from en-, in + pathos, feeling: used to translated, translation German einfühlung ( from ein-, in + fühlung, feeling)

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MLA Style

"empathy." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy>.

APA Style

empathy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy

empathy

noun

The ability to identify with or understand the perspective, experiences, or motivations of another individual and to comprehend and share another individual's emotional state. See Synonyms at pity.
The projection of one's own feelings or thoughts onto something else, such as an object in a work of art or a character in a novel or film.

Origin of empathy

en- ² -pathy ( translation of German Einfühlung )

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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MLA Style

"empathy." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy>.

APA Style

empathy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy

Noun

(countable and uncountable, plural empathies)

the intellectual identification of the thoughts, feelings, or state of another person
capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding
She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.
(parapsychology, science fiction) a paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions

Usage notes

Used similarly to sympathy, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathy is stronger and more intimate, meaning that the subject understands and shares an emotion with the object – as in “I feel your pain” – while sympathy is weaker and more distant – concern, but not shared emotion: “I care for you”.

Origin

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.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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Link to this page

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MLA Style

"empathy." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy>.

APA Style

empathy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/empathy

empathy - Medical Definition

n.

The ability to identify with or understand the perspective, experiences, or motivations of another individual and to comprehend and share another individual's emotional state.