SYMPATHY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sympathy mean? 

• SYMPATHY (noun)
  The noun SYMPATHY has 3 senses:

1. an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion

2. sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)

3. a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other

  Familiarity information: SYMPATHY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SYMPATHY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

sympathy; understanding

Context example:

I knew I could count on his understanding

Hypernyms ("sympathy" is a kind of...):

disposition; inclination; tendency (an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others)

Derivation:

sympathetic (expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward)

sympathise; sympathize (be understanding of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

fellow feeling; sympathy

Hypernyms ("sympathy" is a kind of...):

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sympathy"):

concern (a feeling of sympathy for someone or something)

kind-heartedness; kindheartedness (sympathy arising from a kind heart)

compassion; compassionateness (a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering)

commiseration; pathos; pity; ruth (a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others)

compatibility (a feeling of sympathetic understanding)

empathy (understanding and entering into another's feelings)

Derivation:

sympathetic (expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward)

sympathize (to feel or express sympathy or compassion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Context example:

the two of them were in close sympathy

Hypernyms ("sympathy" is a kind of...):

affinity; kinship (a close connection marked by community of interests or similarity in nature or character)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sympathy"):

mutual affection; mutual understanding (sympathy of each person for the other)

Derivation:

sympathetic (having similar disposition and tastes)

sympathise; sympathize (share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of)

 Context examples 

I have no sympathy with these childish games.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her face was near mine: I saw there was pity in it, and I felt sympathy in her hurried breathing.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I assure you that I can fight my own battles, and that I have no possible need of your sympathy.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For my own part, I begin to love him as a brother, and his constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy and compassion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I am not in sympathy with it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There is so keen a sympathy between us that I should know if evil came upon him.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She nodded her head; and I could see sympathy warm in her eyes.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You shall lie on one, and I on the other, and our sympathy will be comfort to each other, even though we do not speak, and even if we sleep.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was young, to be sure; but I thought much the better of her for this sympathy, and fancied it became her, as a virtuous wife and mother, very well indeed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now, Laurie flattered himself that he had borne it remarkably well, making no moan, asking no sympathy, and taking his trouble away to live it down alone.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)