sympathetic

The word “sympathetic” means showing understanding, care, or compassion for someone else's feelings or situation. In plain terms, caring and understanding toward someone's feelings, or supportive of an idea.

“Sympathetic” is pronounced sihm-puh-THEHT-ihk (/ˌsɪm.pəˈθɛt.ɪk/ in IPA).

Here is “sympathetic” used in a sentence: “The nurse was sympathetic to the frightened patient.”

“Sympathetic” is an adjective.

The word “sympathetic” comes from Greek. Traced back to Greek sympathetikos, related to sympatheia, "fellow feeling" — built from syn- ("together") + pathos ("feeling").

“Sympathetic” is an uncommon word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Sympathetic” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: showing understanding, care, or compassion for someone else's feelings or situation.

Sympathetic describes showing understanding, care, or compassion for someone else's feelings or situation, often from an outside perspective, while empathetic implies more directly sharing or understanding those feelings as if experiencing them oneself. Sympathetic can also describe being favourable toward an idea or cause, a sense empathetic does not carry.

Yes, sympathetic can describe being favourable or supportive toward an idea, cause, or plan, not just showing compassion for a person's feelings. For example, someone can be 'sympathetic to a proposal'.

The opposite of a sympathetic response is one that is indifferent, dismissive, or unsupportive of another person's feelings or situation. A sympathetic response instead shows understanding, care, or compassion.