Empathy and Sympathy are the two psychological terms which are often confused and mixed up together due to their almost similar origin, simultaneous use and depiction of similar matter. Empathy and Sympathy both terms are originated from the Greek term páthos which refer to the feelings, emotions, travail, suffering, etc. Both these words commonly depict the feelings and emotions of a person for the other person. The basic difference between Empathy and Sympathy is that sympathy refers towards the caring and feeling for the sufferings and pains of a person. Sympathy is feelings of care and sorrow for the person that is suffering from any pain or uneven situations. On the other hand, Empathy refers to the feelings of understanding the emotion and suffering of another person due to similar suffering personally. We can say that empathy is the feel of understanding what a person is going through in a particular condition as we have experienced the same.
Empathy
The ability to identify with or understand the perspective, experiences, or motivations of another individual and to comprehend and share another individual's emotional state.
Sympathy
A feeling of pity or sorrow for the distress of another; commiseration.
Empathy
The projection of one's own feelings or thoughts onto something else, such as an object in a work of art or a character in a novel or film.
Sympathy
Often sympathies An expression of such feeling
Offered her sympathies to the mourning family.
Empathy
Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.
Sympathy
Mutual understanding or feeling between people
"Like two frightened children, we sought at the same time to comfort one another, so quick was the sympathy between us" (Nicholas Meyer).
Empathy
Capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding.
Sympathy
Agreement with or support for an opinion or position
The mayor is in sympathy with the proposal.
Empathy
A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.
Sympathy
Often sympathies A tendency to support a position or opinion
A politician of conservative sympathies.
Sympathy
A relationship or affinity between things in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other
"Continuous measurements of ionospheric densities ... showed a variation of noon ionization in sympathy with sunspot activity" (E.V. Appelton).
Empathy
Understanding and entering into another's feelings
Sympathy
(Physics) A relation between bodies such that vibrations in one body cause sympathetic vibrations in another.
Sympathy
(Physiology) A relation between parts or organs by which a disease or disorder in one induces an effect in the other.
Sympathy
A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.
Sympathy
(in plural) The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
Sympathy
The ability to share the feelings of another.
Sympathy
Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
Sympathy
(in plural) Support in the form of shared feelings or opinions.
Sympathy
Feeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.
Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.
Sympathy
An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
Sympathy
Mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it.
Sympathy
(art) Artistic harmony, as of shape or colour in a painting.
Sympathy
Feeling corresponding to that which another feels; the quality of being affected by the affection of another, with feelings correspondent in kind, if not in degree; fellow-feeling.
They saw, but other sight instead - a crowdOf ugly serpents! Horror on them fell,And horrid sympathy.
Sympathy
An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural temperament, which causes persons to be pleased, or in accord, with one another; as, there is perfect sympathy between them.
Sympathy
Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion.
I value myself upon sympathy, I hate and despise myself for envy.
Sympathy
The reciprocal influence exercised by organs or parts on one another, as shown in the effects of a diseased condition of one part on another part or organ, as in the vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
Sympathy
A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other; as, the sympathy between the loadstone and iron.
Sympathy
Similarity of function, use office, or the like.
The adverb has most sympathy with the verb.
Fault,Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wroughtCommiseration.
Sympathy
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
Sympathy
Sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)
Sympathy
A relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other;
The two of them were in close sympathy
Empathy is the psychological term that is used to define the feelings and to understand the emotions of other people by own personal experience. In psychology, there is various similar sort of terms that depicts different sort of feelings and people are often confused between them. Apathy, pity, empathy, sympathy and compassion are some of those famous psychological terms that are widely used to refer different kinds of feeling and emotions regarding each other. Apathy refers to cold feeling towards someone’s emotions and not giving any attention to it. Pity is the psychological term that indicates only awareness and acknowledgment of other’s feelings. Then there is sympathy which refers towards the caring of feelings of others. Empathy is the term which depicts that person feel and understand feelings of others by similar personal experience. Compassion is the term which maximizes the feelings, one wanting to heal the wounds of others. The term empathy and sympathy both are originated from the Greek word pathos, which means feelings and emotions. Empathy only differs with sympathy by personal experience. A person can better feel the pain and understand the situation when he or she themselves have been through the same experience.
Sympathy is the psychological term which refers towards the feeling of care and supports a person possess while noticing others in problem or suffering. Sympathy is the term always used for demonstrating the feelings of care, love, and support for the people facing hard times, who are in pain or suffering from uneven situations. Unlike empathy, the person who possesses the sympathy feelings of support and care is only aware of the condition of the person and does not have any personal suffering background regarding it. Sympathy unlike to empathy is always directed towards the painful feelings and bad conditions. A person possesses feelings of sympathy for others when he or she look them suffering from pain or heat break. One the other hand empathy can refer towards the both positive feeling and well as negative based upon the personal experience of an individual.
