Meaning & use
compassionate
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Feeling sorry for someone's suffering and wanting to help, and showing it in how you act.
Grammar: Can be graded: a more compassionate nurse; often followed by toward or to.
Patterns
- compassionate toward someone
- a compassionate response
The nurse was compassionate toward every patient on the ward.
She gave a compassionate answer when he admitted his mistake.
A compassionate leader listens before deciding.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Allowed because of special personal or family hardship, as in permission granted for serious reasons.
Grammar: Used before a noun: compassionate leave, compassionate release.
Patterns
- compassionate leave
- compassionate grounds
He was given compassionate leave when his father fell ill.
The prisoner was released on compassionate grounds.
Her request for a compassionate transfer was approved.
Word forms
| comparative | more compassionate |
|---|---|
| superlative | most compassionate |
Common combinations
- compassionate care
- The hospice is known for compassionate care.
- compassionate leave
- The employer offered compassionate leave after the funeral.
- deeply compassionate
- She is a deeply compassionate teacher.
- compassionate response
- The charity's compassionate response helped many families.
- kind and compassionate
- He was kind and compassionate with the frightened child.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sympathetic
- Sympathetic can describe feelings alone, whereas compassionate suggests feeling that moves you to help.
- caring
- Caring is a warmer everyday word, while compassionate is more serious and focused on suffering.
- merciful
- Merciful suggests holding back punishment from someone with power over them, which is narrower than compassionate.
Opposites
Word family
- compassion noun
- deep sympathy and concern for suffering
- compassionately adverb
- in a caring, sympathetic way
- compassionateness noun
- the quality of being compassionate (rare)
Commonly confused: compassionate or passionate?
compassionate vs passionate
Passionate means full of strong feeling or enthusiasm, while compassionate means sympathetic toward suffering.
Practice
The manager gave him three days of ___ leave after his mother died.
Choose one answer.
Compassionate leave is time off for family hardship. Compulsory leave is required, and passionate and competitive do not collocate with leave.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “compassionate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.