empathy

Meaning

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

Synonyms

sympathy

compassion

understanding

affectivity

emotion

pathos

passion

affection

pity

feeling

sensibility

kindness

commiseration

comfort

consolation

humanity

sensitivity

solace

warmth

heart

❤️

response

feelings

will

condolence

empathetic

thoughtfulness

considerateness

concern

intuition

impression

human nature

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɛmpəθi/

Etymology

A twentieth-century borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empátheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ἐν (en, “in, at”) + πάθος (páthos, “feeling”)), 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.