compassion
noun
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What is the difference between empathy and compassion?
Some of our users are interested in the difference between empathy and compassion. Compassion is the broader word: it refers to both an understanding of another’s pain and the desire to somehow mitigate that pain:
Our rationalizations for lying (or withholding the truth)—"to protect her," "he could never handle it”—come more out of cowardice than compassion.
— Eric Utne, Utne Reader, November/December 1992
Sometimes compassion is used to refer broadly to sympathetic understanding:
Nevertheless, when Robert Paxton's "Vichy France" appeared in a French translation in 1973, his stark and devastating description ... was rather badly received in France, where many critics accused this scrupulous and thoughtful young historian either of misinterpreting the Vichy leaders' motives or of lacking compassion.
— Stanley Hoffmann, The New York Times Book Review, 1 Nov. 1981
Empathy refers to the ability to relate to another person’s pain vicariously, as if one has experienced that pain themselves:
For instance, people who are highly egoistic and presumably lacking in empathy keep their own welfare paramount in making moral decisions like how or whether to help the poor.
— Daniel Goleman, The New York Times, 28 Mar. 1989"The man thought all this talk was fine, but he was more concerned with just getting water. And, if I was going to be successful on this mission, I had to remember what his priorities were. The quality you need most in United Nations peacekeeping is empathy."
— Geordie Elms, quoted in MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Autumn 1992
In some cases, compassion refers to both a feeling and the action that stems from that feeling:
Compassion, tenderness, patience, responsibility, kindness, and honesty are actions that elicit similar responses from others.
— Jane Smiley, Harper’s, June 2000
while empathy tends to be used just for a feeling:
She is also autistic, a disability that she argues allows her a special empathy with nonhuman creatures.
— Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books, 29 April 2009
Synonyms
- commiseration
- feeling
- sympathy
Example Sentences
Paul A. Cantor, Gilligan Unbound, 2001 … he read every "doctor book" he could reach … , learning fine secrets and curing us with steams and fruit compotes and dexterous rubs and, above all, with bedside compassion. Gwendolyn Brooks, Booklist, 15 Oct. 1993 The novel addresses at every point in its structural edifice, and lingers over in every fissure, the slave's body and personality: the way it speaks, what passion legal or illicit it is prey to, what pain it can endure, what limits, if any, there are to its suffering, what possibilities there are for forgiveness, compassion, love. Toni Morrison, Playing In The Dark, 1992 I can't write songs about what's wrong with a country that seems to lack compassion for pain and suffering … Bonnie Raitt, quoted in Entertainment Weekly, 23 Aug. 1991 Like the best of the new detectives, V. I. and Kinsey, she is a woman of wit and gravity, compassion and toughness, a heroine worth spending time with. Susan Isaacs, New York Times Book Review, 3 Nov. 1991 He felt compassion for the lost child. She shows compassion to the sick. She had the compassion to offer help when it was needed most. See More Jessica Wang, EW.com, 11 Sep. 2022 It's been made with a lot of compassion, and by people who have a lot of love for people in their lives who have mental health problems, or have mental health problems themselves. Austa Somvichian-clausen, Glamour, 2 Sep. 2022 Ted, convinced his espionage was saving millions, acted out of compassion. Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Sep. 2022 Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 31 Aug. 2022 Knowing a bond of trust had been broken, general manager Brian Sabean and the players simply wrote him off — for good — without a hint of compassion. Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Aug. 2022 As Holden Karnofsky once put it, most people who sit down to reason through these things from a place of compassion don’t expect to arrive at such conclusions—or want to. Gideon Lewis-kraus, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022 Del Toro hopes this movie will bring about a sense of compassion. Giovana Gelhoren, PEOPLE.com, 27 July 2022 Their lack of compassion is pretty straightforward. Annie Lane, cleveland, 26 July 2022 See More Word History
Middle English, from Anglo-French or Late Latin; Anglo-French, from Late Latin compassion-, compassio, from compati to sympathize, from Latin com- + pati to bear, suffer — more at patient
14th century, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing compassion
Kids Definition
compassion
noun
compassion
noun
Synonyms & Similar Words
- sympathy
- empathy
- kindness
- feeling
- commiseration
- regret
- generosity
- mercy
- pity
- sensitivity
- humaneness
- understanding
- humanity
- kindliness
- altruism
- condolence
- ruth
- kindheartedness
- magnanimity
- benevolence
- affinity
- humanitarianism
- goodwill
- rapport
- warmheartedness
- benignity
- philanthropy
- charity
- softheartedness
- largesse
- largess
- largeheartedness
- bigheartedness
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- indifference
- callousness
- heartlessness
- cruelty
- hatred
- hard-heartedness
- insensitivity
- inhumanity
- unconcern
- coldheartedness
- hostility
- animosity
- harshness
- antipathy
- dislike
Synonyms & Similar Words
- kindness
- sympathy
- heart
- generosity
- mercy
- humanity
- pity
- sensitivity
- feelings
- kindliness
- ruth
- kindheartedness
- empathy
- commiseration
- feeling
- good-heartedness
- responsiveness
- warmheartedness
- charity
- affection
- love
- sensibility
- largeheartedness
- bigheartedness
- regard
- softheartedness
- altruism
- humaneness
- humanism
- humanitarianism
- benevolence
- rapport
- affinity
- goodwill
- philanthropy
- benignity
- benignancy
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- indifference
- inhumanity
- mercilessness
- callousness
- cruelty
- pitilessness
- coldness
- hatred
- hard-heartedness
- disinterest
- unconcern
- coldheartedness
- hostility
- animosity
- harshness
- inhumanness
- antipathy
- dislike
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of compassion are commiseration, condolence, pity, and sympathy. While all these words mean "the act or capacity for sharing the painful feelings of another," compassion implies pity coupled with an urgent desire to aid or to spare.
While in some cases nearly identical to compassion, commiseration suggests pity expressed outwardly in exclamations, tears, or words of comfort.
While the synonyms condolence and compassion are close in meaning, condolence applies chiefly to formal expression of grief to one who has suffered loss.
In some situations, the words pity and compassion are roughly equivalent. However, pity implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress.
The words sympathy and compassion can be used in similar contexts, but sympathy often suggests a tender concern but can also imply a power to enter into another's emotional experience of any sort.