empathy

UK: /ˈɛmpəθi/ US: /ˈɛmpəθi/ ,(em′pə thē)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

em•pa•thy /ˈɛmpəθi/   n. [uncountable]

1. the power or ability to identify with another's feelings, thoughts, etc., as if they were one's own.

See -path-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

em•pa•thy  (em′pə thē), n. 

1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself:
   By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.

• Greek empátheia affection, equivalent. to em- em-² + path- (base of páschein to suffer) + -eia -ia; present meaning translates German Einfühlung
• 1900–05

Synonyms

• 1. See sympathy. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

empathy / ˈɛmpəθɪ/ noun

1. the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person's feelings
   See also identification3b
2. the attribution to an object, such as a work of art, of one's own emotional or intellectual feelings about it

Etymology: 20th Century: from Greek empatheia affection, passion, intended as a rendering of German Einfühlung, literally: a feeling in; see en-², -pathy