COMPASSION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does compassion mean? 

• COMPASSION (noun)
  The noun COMPASSION has 2 senses:

1. a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering

2. the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

  Familiarity information: COMPASSION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPASSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

compassion; compassionateness

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

fellow feeling; sympathy (sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish))

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

heartstrings (your deepest feelings of love and compassion)

mellowness (a feeling of good humor and sympathy through maturity or intoxication or a relaxed state)

tenderheartedness; tenderness (warm compassionate feelings)

mercifulness; mercy (the feeling that motivates compassion)

Derivation:

compassionate (share the suffering of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

compassion; pity

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

mercifulness; mercy (a disposition to be kind and forgiving)

Derivation:

compassionate (share the suffering of)

compassionate (showing or having compassion)

 Context examples 

Harriet, Harriet, do not deceive yourself; do not be run away with by gratitude and compassion.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

In spite of the mischief of his attentions, she owed him gratitude and regard, perhaps compassion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

This was placing her in a very uncomfortable situation, and she felt great compassion for Captain Tilney, without being able to hope for his goodwill.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Neptune, the planet of compassion, will take a strong, supportive role, and see to it that you meet your goals.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I, and only I, knew your heart and its sorrows; yet to what did it influence me? —not to any compassion that could benefit you or myself.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

And though it is terrible to you to hear, said Mr. Wickfield, quite subdued, if you knew how terrible it is for me to tell, you would feel compassion for me!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I shook my head in token of my ignorance, and Ebbits looked compassion at me, while Zilla snorted her customary contempt.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

And you may say, if you please, that I shall prepare my most plaintive airs against his return, in compassion to his feelings, as I know his horse will lose.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

You have no compassion for my poor nerves.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Pity and compassion had been generated in the subterranean barracoons of the slaves and were no more than the agony and sweat of the crowded miserables and weaklings.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)