Meaning

(intransitive) To have, show or express sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected.

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive) To have, show or express sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected
2. (intransitive) To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).
3. (transitive) To say in an expression of sympathy.
4. (intransitive) To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To share (a feeling or experience).
6. (intransitive) To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.

Example Sentences

[…] the Authors having chosen for their Heroes Persons who were so nearly related to the People for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Aeneas the remote Founder of Rome. By this Means their Countrymen (whom they principally proposed to themselves for their Readers) were particularly attentive to all the Parts of their Story, and sympathized with their Heroes in all their Adventures.

Some old people keep young at heart in spite of wrinkles and gray hairs, can sympathize with children’s little cares and joys, make them feel at home, and can hide wise lessons under pleasant plays, giving and receiving friendship in the sweetest way.

“I can’t quite sympathise with your mother in all her feelings about this marriage, because I do not think that I recognise as she does the necessity of money.”

The wives were sympathizing with each other in slightly raised voices.

‘[…] who is to hunt up my witnesses? All of them are sailors, drafted off to other ships, except those whose evidence would go for very little, as they took part, or sympathised in the affair. […]’

“Whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and considerable enterprise in devising and putting into action new methods for accomplishing their ends. […]”

[…] naturally the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederacy, as one aristocrat with another, against a race of dollar lovers like the Yankees.

He’d go to […] Soviet Russia—now giving us the whole story, that he sympathized with the Reds and admired Lenin […]

Word Forms

• sympathizes
• sympathizing
• sympathized
• sympathise

Synonyms for sympathize

Related Words

When Should You Use Sympathize?

Use sympathize when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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