# data[].attributes.body
Understanding on how someone feels and listening and caring

# data[].attributes.body
The abilities to understand and share their feelings with one another

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is something that you feel and how you use your actions on someone when they feel sad or anxious

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you see someone is very hurt and you care enough to see how you can help the person(s)

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy  is when you understand and recognize both upbeat or sad feelings. Empathy is when you are there to recognize and fix negative emotions. Sometimes, you have to walk in someone's shoes to understand.

# data[].attributes.headline
Empathy means making someone feel better and feeling bad for them without ever having experienced the same thing and not really understanding.

# data[].attributes.subject
Empathy means making someone feel better and feeling bad for them without ever having experienced the same thing and not really understanding.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy means to understand someone and loving someone.

# data[].attributes.body
empathy is understanding how someone feels and feeling bad for them

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you can recognize and fell someones feelings.

# data[].attributes.headline
my brother kept loosiing at cards and i felt empathy for him because my dad always went after him.

# data[].attributes.subject
my brother kept loosiing at cards and i felt empathy for him because my dad always went after him.

# data[].attributes.body
to feel how people is feeling

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is understanding the different things people can be going through and sometime you need to show people you care about them

# data[].attributes.body
empathy isnt something you can just do or be so be like a tree and grow

# data[].attributes.body
I was Watching X-men Apocalypse, i'm a nerd, and I felt empathy for Magneto as he lost his family members, I knew what it is like to lose someone

# data[].attributes.body
empathy is understanding other peoples perspectives and feelings.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy means to understanding people feelings.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is to understand what others are going through and help them go through it.

# data[].attributes.body
understanding...

# data[].attributes.body
lizzie

# data[].attributes.body
Understanding someone else
emotions

# data[].attributes.body
sometimes you just need a hug

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy

# data[].attributes.body
empathy is were you need help or if someone needs help or what they are going threw

# data[].attributes.body
getting to know and understand what people are going through and helping them through a tough time.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy Is something you feel for someone

# data[].attributes.body
Lizzie
its better to see through someone elses eyes for a time.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy means to to understand and feel what other people are going through

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you put your self in someone else shoes and understand what they are going through.

# data[].attributes.body
I chose this one because he can tell how other people feel and help your friend or someone else fell happy or genuine again.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy to me is when you understand and know what someone else is going through or what they feel.

# data[].attributes.body
to understand what people are feeling and always being there for them

# data[].attributes.body
What empathy means to be is the understanding of other peoples feelings as well as sharing and giving feelings to another persons.

# data[].attributes.body
when you had the worst day in your life and someone walks up to you and says i care for you and make you laugh and turn your frown upside down.

# data[].attributes.headline
Its okay if you need a hug once in awhile!

# data[].attributes.subject
Its okay if you need a hug once in awhile!

# data[].attributes.body
understanding peoples thoughts and feelings

# data[].attributes.body
understanding

# data[].attributes.body
Be a bucket filler a bucket filler is were you give somebody positive quotes to somebody else

# data[].attributes.body
If you can think, you can know.  If you can know you can feel.  If you can feel hard enough, you can feel when there are struggles.  If you can feel the struggles, you can reach your hand out and offer help.

# data[].attributes.body
Ethan
Is the sea into their friends heads and figure out what they are feeling.

# data[].attributes.body
This represents empathy because the panda loves the other panda even though he or she is not perfect.

# data[].attributes.body
The golden rule. treat other people like you would others to treat you.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is puting youself into other peoples feelings, and understanding them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Did you know?

Sympathy and empathy both refer to a caring response to the emotional state of another person, but a distinction between them is typically made: while sympathy is a feeling of sincere concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful, empathy involves actively sharing in the emotional experience of the other person.

Sympathy has been in use since the 16th century, and its greater age is reflected in its wider breadth of meanings, including "a feeling of loyalty" and "unity or harmony in action or effect." It comes ultimately from the Greek sympathēs, meaning "having common feelings, sympathetic," which was formed from syn- ("with, together with") and páthos, "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition." Empathy was modeled on sympathy; it was coined in the early 20th century as a translation of the German Einfühlung ("feeling-in" or "feeling into"). First applied in contexts of philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology, empathy continues to have technical use in those fields that sympathy does not.

Did you know?

Compassion and empathy both refer to a caring response to someone else's distress. While empathy refers to an active sharing in the emotional experience of the other person, compassion adds to that emotional experience a desire to alleviate the person's distress.

... the story of Nellie Bly, the first female investigative reporter, who not only demanded justice from powerful institutions, but also insisted on dignity and compassion for the most vulnerable citizens. - The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Aug. 2022

Blonde clearly wants us to feel for Norma Jeane, but it dwells on her pain so obsessively ... that the movie's empathy feels like another form of exploitation. - Justin Chang, NPR, 23 Sept. 2022

The distinction between compassion and empathy is frequently a topic of exploration.

By empathy I mean feeling the feelings of other people. So if you're in pain and I feel your pain-I am feeling empathy toward you. If you're being anxious, I pick up your anxiety. If you're sad and I pick up your sadness, I'm being empathetic. And that's different from compassion. Compassion means I give your concern weight, I value it. I care about you, but I don't necessarily pick up your feelings. ... [I]f I feel compassion for you, I'll be invigorated. I'll be happy and I'll try to make your life better. - Paul Bloom, quoted in Vox, 16 Jan. 2019

Compassion is a much older word; it's been part of the language since the 14th century, and comes ultimately from Latin com- and pati, meaning "to bear, suffer." Empathy is a 20th century coinage modeled on sympathy as a translation of the German Einfühlung ("feeling-in" or "feeling into"). It was first applied in contexts of philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology and continues to have technical use in those fields.

Example Sentences

He felt great His months spent researching prison life gave him greater empathy with the poor. empathy towards convicts.

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'empathy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Greek empatheia, literally, passion, from empathēs emotional, from em- + pathos feelings, emotion - more at pathos

1909, in the meaning defined at sense 2

The first known use of empathy was in 1909

Dictionary Entries Near empathy

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster on empathy

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search-ad free!

Merriam-Webster unabridged

Challenging Words You Should Know

Often used to describe "the march of time," what does inexorable mean?

Can you make 12 words with 7 letters?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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... See the full definition

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is how to know someone needs emotional support. Always be there for them

# data[].attributes.body
helping someone out who needs it.

# data[].attributes.headline
Empathy is when you know how someone is feeling and take it seriously.

# data[].attributes.subject
Empathy is when you know how someone is feeling and take it seriously.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is feeling how others feel and being there for them.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is understanding others.

# data[].attributes.body
When you put yourself in someone else's shoes and see how they're feeling.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you see in someone else's perspective and share their feelings.

# data[].attributes.body
empathy is having feelings for someone and having emotions and caring for someone! But empathy is VERY important if you ask me if you see someone with a sad face then you come twords them and say " i care for you i hope you feel better "

# data[].attributes.body
empathy is when you put yourself in someone else's shoes and feel what they feel.

# data[].attributes.body
When you feel something for someone

# data[].attributes.body
empathy is when you are feeling bad for someone that is upset or sad

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is trying to be in someone else's shoes

# data[].attributes.body
sponge bob

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is  understanding how someone feels and being able to give advice and be there for them.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is where you are able to be in someone else shoes and how they feel.

# data[].attributes.body
to understand and share feeling with a person.

# data[].attributes.body
Seeing some else's prespestive

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you feel what another person is feeling.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is putting yourself in another persons shoes, feeling their emotions and understanding how they feel in the situation.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you can kind of tell what other people are feeling

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is where you understand how someone is feeling, where you care about someone and can relate to what they are currently feeling.

# data[].attributes.body
Interested in how people are feeling inside and out

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you step into another person's shoes

# data[].attributes.headline
Empathy is when you can relate to people

# data[].attributes.subject
Empathy is when you can relate to people

# data[].attributes.body
-Melanie

# data[].attributes.body
I think that empathy is feeling other people´s emotions.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is being able to relate to someone to understand there situation and being able to help them if need.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is being able to relate to someone else's situation and then being able to comfort or help them through that relation.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is when you care and relate to other peoples emotions and feelings. This image is of a person comforting another when something is wrong with them.

# data[].attributes.body
i think empathy is like emotions,And caring for someone when they are sad.

# data[].attributes.body
Empathy is felling for your friends and helping them get through tough times

# data[].attributes.body
I think empathy is : the possibility to understand/feel what someone else is feeling.

# data[].attributes.body
To help someone get trough hard times

# data[].attributes.body
this is two kids giving each other a hug and showing kindness and comfort shows empathy.

# data[].attributes.body
These people are understanding eachother

# data[].attributes.body
it explains what empathy is

# data[].attributes.body
Choosing what feelings you have for the other person.

# data[].attributes.body
The man is crying during the movie. He is showing empathy to a character in the movie.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that this picture describes empathy because one person is comforting the one that is feeling down and can relate to this person and knows what he is going through.

# data[].attributes.body
This picture shows one kid is sad and the other kid feels his pain so hes comforting him.

# data[].attributes.body
my picture is of space, and while I have my reasons, I'm more curious on why other people would think I picked this picture.

# data[].attributes.body
Seeing the world through someone elses eyes.