Meaning & use
empathy
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Meanings
noununcountable
The ability to understand and share another person's feelings by imagining yourself in their situation.
Grammar: Usually uncountable; say some empathy or a lot of empathy, not an empathy.
Patterns
- feel/show empathy (for someone)
- have empathy with someone
- empathy for/toward someone
- lack empathy
Nurses need empathy as well as medical skill.
I felt real empathy for her when she described losing her job.
He shows little empathy toward people who struggle with money.
noununcountablespecialistrare
The projection of your own feelings onto an object, place, or work of art, as if it shared your emotions.
Grammar: An older specialist use; almost never used in everyday conversation.
Patterns
- empathy with a work of art
Early psychologists used empathy to describe feeling our way into a painting or landscape.
Common combinations
- show/feel empathy
- She showed empathy by listening without judging.
- empathy for someone
- His speech revealed deep empathy for ordinary families.
- empathy with (a character)
- Readers feel strong empathy with the young hero of the novel.
- lack empathy
- The report criticized managers who lack empathy for their staff.
Synonyms and how they differ
- compassion
- Compassion adds a wish to relieve suffering; empathy is about understanding the feeling itself.
- sympathy
- Sympathy is feeling sorry for or supportive of someone; empathy means you more deeply share their perspective.
- understanding
- Understanding is general and neutral; empathy specifically means emotionally entering another person's experience.
Opposites
Word family
- empathize verb
- to understand and share another person's feelings (British also empathise).
- empathetic adjective
- showing an ability to understand others' feelings.
- empathic adjective
- another word for empathetic, common in psychology.
- empathetically adverb
- in a way that shows understanding of others' feelings.
Commonly confused: empathy or sympathy? empathy or apathy?
empathy vs sympathy
Empathy is sharing or understanding someone's feelings; sympathy is feeling concern or pity for them. You can feel sympathy without truly understanding their experience.
empathy vs apathy
Apathy sounds similar but means a lack of interest or feeling, almost the opposite of empathy.
Practice
Which sentence uses “empathy” correctly?
Choose one answer.
Empathy is an uncountable ability to understand and share feelings, so understanding stressed colleagues fits. Refusing to speak, watering a plant, and buying one are all nonsensical or ungrammatical uses.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “empathy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.