empathy

Meaning

  1. (countable, uncountable) Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
  2. (countable, uncountable) The capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding.
  3. (countable, uncountable) A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.
  4. (countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable) MDMA.

Synonyms

sympathy
C1
compassion
C1
understanding
B2
affectivity

emotion

pathos
40k
passion
B2
affection
C1
pity
B1
feeling
A1
sensibility
25k
kindness
B2
commiseration
comfort
B2
consolation
C1
humanity
B2
sensitivity
C2
solace
C2
warmth
C1
heart
A1
❤️
response
B2
feelings
B1
will
A1
condolence
32k
empathetic
40k
thoughtfulness
considerateness
concern
B1
intuition
C1
impression
B2
human nature
Translations

empathie
empatia
empatía
Empathie
empatia
Einfühlungsvermögen
empatia
Mitgefühl

ενσυναίσθηση

empathie
empati
compassion
Einfühlung
sympathie
Frequency

C2
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈɛmpəθi/
Etymology

Cognate with Greek
εμπάθεια
In summary

A twentieth-century borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empátheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ἐν (en, “in, at”) + πάθος (páthos, “feeling”)), equivalent to em- + -pathy, coined by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung. The modern word in Greek εμπάθεια (empátheia) has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone.

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English