Link Centre Dictionary

sympathy

sym·pathy

UK/ˈsɪm.pəθ.i/ US/ˈsɪmpʌθi/ fairly common

noun

1.

an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion

  • “his sympathies were always with the underdog”
  • “I knew I could count on his understanding”
2.

sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)

3.

a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other

  • “the two of them were in close sympathy”

Origin

Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathīa (“feeling in common”), from Ancient Greek σῠμπᾰ́θειᾰ (sŭmpắtheiă, “fellow feeling”), from σῠμπᾰθής (sŭmpăthḗs, “affected by like feelings; exerting mutual influence, interacting”) + -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, “-y”, nominal suffix). Equivalent to sym- (“acting or considered together”) + -pathy (“feeling”).

Phrases

  • mechanical sympathy
  • powder of sympathy
  • sympathy card
  • sympathy is between shit and syphilis
  • sympathy strike
  • sympathy verdict

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.