How to use empathy in a sentence
40 example sentences · noun
Empathy means identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person. Example: “She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.”
Examples of empathy by meaning
nounIdentification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
- She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.
- While Musk said he believes in empathy and that “you should care about other people,” he also thinks it’s destroying society.2025 March 5, Zachary B. Wolf, “Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy”, in CNN, archived from the original on 26 Mar...
More sentences with empathy
- Empathy seemed to be absent from the messages.From the entry absent
- Its members taught him the “radical empathy” of Jesus, he said.2026 August 30, Ruth Graham, Emily Cochrane, “Dolly Parton and the ‘Pretty Darn Good’ Southern Church”, in The New York Times, retrieved…. From the entry balm
- Vance used the example to make a broader point about empathy and moral behavior.[2025 October 30, “U.S. Vice President JD Vance comments on Hasan Piker's dog collar controversy”, in The Times Of India, Mumbai: Bennet…. From the entry Dogtober 7th
- Jo says men who lovebomb tend to have low emotional intelligence and lack empathy.2022 February 9, Verity Ellis, “There’s no bigger red flag than when a man lovebombs you: By VERITY ELLIS who was told after ten days ‘I…. From the entry lovebomb
- Rather, such difficulties are reciprocal, so a 'double empathy' problem exists.2020, Karen Guldberg, Developing Excellence in Autism Practice: Making a Difference in Education, unnumbered page. From the entry double empathy problem
- But it did finally diffuse some of my animosity and turn me toward pity without empathy.2020, Patti Larsen, chapter 13, in Out With The Old and Death, [s.l.]: Patti Larsen Books, →ISBN, unnumbered page. From the entry viperesque
- “Michael refused to wear an empathy belly, and to be present at the delivery.”2017, Flavia Idà, Children of the Wrong Time. From the entry empathy belly
- Despite his outer appearance of a hard-charging pipehitter, Sahil had a genuine gift for empathy.2015, Jay Posey, Sungrazer. From the entry pipe-hitter
- My discussion is not in any way intended to neurologize the subject of empathy.2014, Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Melvin Bornstein, Donald Silver, Empathy I (Psychology Revivals), page 74. From the entry neurologize
- Henry Irving and other Victorian actors easily created empathy for Shylock, even in a muscularly Christian period.2010, Linda Woodbridge, English Revenge Drama: Money, Resistance, Equality, page 268. From the entry christian
- Clearly, empathy is a Scriptural concept that Christians can put to work in becoming better leaders.2008, David L. Goetsch, Taking Your Faith to Work, →ISBN, page 26. From the entry put to work
- The overreactor develops poor focus while the underreactor has trouble developing empathy.2005, Katherine M. Ramsland, Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers: Why They Kill. From the entry overreactor
- But whatever his intentions, let us understand omnipercipience to include perfect and unlimited powers of empathy.2002, Michael Martin, Atheism, Morality, and Meaning, page 58. From the entry omnipercipience
- Empathy signifies exploring, reconnoitering, contemplating, estimating, judging, “feeling into,” but not “feeling with” the other person.1939 November, Eugen Kahn, Helen G. Richter, “Sensitivity”, in The American Journal of Psychiatry, volume 96. From the entry symphoria
- But he also knew from a young age that if they knew he was gay, that empathy could be withdrawn.2026 August 30, Ruth Graham, Emily Cochrane, “Dolly Parton and the ‘Pretty Darn Good’ Southern Church”, in The New York Times, retrieved…. From the entry balm
- By taking users to places where they would or could not really go, the technology offered empathy or awe via translocation.2023 June 6, Ian Bogost, “The Age of Goggles Has Arrived”, in The Atlantic. From the entry translocation
- Obama expresses empathy for graduates who might be feeling lost or overwhelmed, adding she, too, feels those emotions.2020 June 7, Kate Bennett, “Michelle Obama to 2020 graduates: ‘For those of you who feel invisible: Please know that your story matters’”…. From the entry express
- That will call for dialogue and empathy.2019 November 18, Pablo Iglesias, “Spain’s new coalition must face up to the Catalan crisis and the rise of the far right”, in The Guardian. From the entry plurinational
- Our pro-social emotions of kindness, empathy, loyalty and firgun tied us together into couples and families, bands and tribes.2017 May 28, Dr Keith Gaynor, “Firgun: 'The emotion you probably never knew you have'”, in The Journal: IE. From the entry firgun
- This pillar is founded on the principles of nonlabelling, respect for values, coresponsibility, recognition, empathy, and professional conduct.2013, Alice Butterfield, Tasse Abye, Social Development and Social Work: Learning from Africa. From the entry coresponsibility
- It is premethodical empathy, which has to be checked methodically.2012, J. N. Mohanty, Phenomenology and the Human Sciences, page 103. From the entry premethodical
- I wish Sonia Sotomayor didn’t have quite so much empathy.2009 June 3, Mary Sanchez, “Underestimating Sotomayor: Nominee’s past doesn’t necessarily predict her future”, in Muscatine Journal…. From the entry oh-so
- This family empathy measure is highly related to ever use of birth control but not to any measure of continuous use.1965, Reuben Hill, The family and population control: a Puerto Rican experiment in social change. From the entry ever
- “We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk said, borrowing the term from Gad Saad, a Canadian scholar who is also a frequent Rogan host.2025 March 5, Zachary B. Wolf, “Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy”, in CNN, archived from the original on 26 Mar…. From the entry gad
- It’s about compassion, empathy and humility.2021 March 4, Francesca Donner, “What Makes a Good Leader, and Who Gets to Be One?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the…. From the entry empowerment
- It's also a subset of empathy.2021, Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience, Random House, →ISBN, page 36. From the entry freudenfreude
- Just Like You could stand alone as the ladlit-meets-mumlit social satire that it is, its vicious wit paradoxically interwoven with tenderness and empathy.2020 September 18, Joanna Briscoe, “Just Like You by Nick Hornby review – ladlit meets mumlit”, in The Guardian. From the entry lad lit
- I believe her empathy lies in our tie as first‐generation college Latino (Arabtino) doctoral educators navigating a majority upper middle class white campus.2016 August 5, Yamil Avivi, Latino/a Youth Subcultures in Elizabeth, New Jersey: Memory, Spacemaking, and Citizenship, 1980s-1990s…. From the entry Arabtino
- You have to work as a human with empathy and love in your heart, staying positive and staying based and staying normal.2012 April 12, Duncan Cooper, “Based Scripture: The Full Transcript of Lil B’s Lecture at NYU”, in The Fader. From the entry based
- Plus people always come up and rub your belly when you're pregnant, and would an empathy belly feel like a real belly?2010, Paul and Shannon Morell, Misconception. From the entry empathy belly
- It was a self-deficient people with whom the self-deficient Hitler achieved that peculiar empathy: a resonance of injured self on injured self.1991, Harold Barrett, Rhetoric and Civility: Human Development, Narcissism, and the Good Audience. From the entry self-deficient
- But that tragedy and your smittenness seem to have overwhelmed your capacity for empathy for the other contemporary tragedy – that of the Palestinian right to self-determination and sovereignty.2024 October 13, Louise Adler, “Dear Howard Jacobson, don’t let historical hatreds cover Israel’s cruelty”, in The Guardian. From the entry smittenness
- We cannot continue simply to assume a humanistic paternalistic empathy with the suffering of "Others" that Hartman characterises as the "obliterative assimilation of empathy" which quickly becomes self-indulgent.2020, Elahe Haschemi Yekani, Familial Feeling, page 274. From the entry obliterative assimilation
- Limbaugh, the New York Times and social justice warriors throughout the fruited plain were revulsed by James’ lack of empathy for the persecuted Hong Kong throng.2019 October 24, Fraser P. Seitel, “LeBron and the limits of social responsibility”, in O’Dwyer’s, volume 33, number 7, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry Greta Thunbergian
- Autistic people's difficulties with communication combined with the 'double empathy problem' can lead to assumptions being made by staff about the people they are teaching or supporting.2018, Michael James, Forest School and Autism: A Practical Guide, page 37. From the entry double empathy problem
- With the birth of the 'alta-male', researchers argue that traditional masculinity, associated with strength, toughness and career ambition, has been replaced by an emphasis on kindness, intelligence and empathy.2016 July 20, Guy Kelly, “Rise of the 'alta-male': The new priorities of men in 2016,”, in The Daily Telegraph. From the entry alta-male
- Mothers have three natural advantages that particularly fit them for the task: a close blood tie, a bodyful of maternal hormones and a natural female inclination to empathy.2009, Sue Palmer, 21st Century Boys, →ISBN. From the entry bodyful
- Storm Over Warlock and its sequel, Ordeal in Otherwhere, feature two important themes in Norton's fiction: sentient, benevolent, and telepathetic animals and the profound value of empathy and cooperation.1981, Roger Schlobin, “Book Reviews: Andre Norton Reprinted”, in Science Fiction Studies, volume 8, number 2, page 220. From the entry telepathetic
Meaning of empathy
- noun Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
- noun The capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding.
- noun A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.
Questions about empathy in a sentence
- How do you use empathy in a sentence?
- Empathy is used as a noun. For example: “She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.”
- What is a short sentence with empathy?
- “It's also a subset of empathy.”
- What does empathy mean?
- Empathy means identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: empathy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use empathy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/empathy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
