First Known Use: 1850
Dictionary
empathy
noun em·pa·thy \ˈem-pə-thē\
: the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions : the ability to share someone else's feelings
Full Definition of EMPATHY
1
: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it
2
: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this
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Examples of EMPATHY
- Poetic empathy understandably seeks a strategy of identification with victims … —Helen Vendler, New Republic, 5 May 2003
- This is tough love with a vengeance, but what a gruesome view of God's saints bereft of all empathy. —Sidney Callahan, Commonweal, 19 Apr. 2002
- Enter a new inmate … a giant black man with a gift of preternatural empathy; he can literally suck the pain out of people. —Richard Corliss, Time, 13 Dec. 1999
- But in all those years of young womanhood, my Do-Unto-Others empathy never extended beyond sharing a trolley seat. —Lois Mark Stalvey, The Education of a WASP, 1989
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Origin of EMPATHY
Greek empatheia, literally, passion, from empathēs emotional, from em- + pathos feelings, emotion — more at pathos
Other Psychology Terms
EMPATHY Defined for Kids
empathy
noun em·pa·thy \ˈem-pə-thē\
Definition of EMPATHY for Kids
: the understanding and sharing of the emotions and experiences of another person <He has great empathy toward the poor.>
Medical Dictionary
empathy
noun em·pa·thy \ˈem-pə-thē\
plural em·pa·thies
Medical Definition of EMPATHY
1
: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it
2
: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for empathy
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