How to use sympathy in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Sympathy means a feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another. Example: “Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.”

Examples of sympathy by meaning

nounA feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.

If you want sympathy you’ll find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.2018, Sergeant first class Greg Stube, Conquer Anything: A Green Beret’s Guide to Building Your A-Team
And all told, Trump’s second term has actually led to the most sympathy for migrants on record in the 21st century, per Gallup.2025 July 13, Aaron Blake, “Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2025

nounFeeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.

Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.

nounAn affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by...

A peculiarity of were-animals is the sympathy that exists between their animal form and that of the human with whom it is connected.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 121
The solution to coach riding defects, at least, seems to require much more co-operative practical experiment by all engineering departments to achieve better sympathy between the vehicle body, its undercarriage and the track on which it rides.1960 December, “The riding of B.R. coaches”, in Trains Illustrated, page 706
Sympathy likened anything to anything else in universal attraction, e.g. the fate of men to the course of the planets.1997, Chris Horrocks, “The Renaissance Episteme”, in Introducing Foucault, Totem Books; Icon Books, →ISBN, page 67

More sentences with sympathy

She expressed her heartfelt sympathies at the death of his mother.From the entry heartfelt
His unsuccessful attempt earned him sympathy, condolences, and an occasional good-natured ribbing.From the entry unsuccessful
It's impossible to datafy complex human emotions like anger, love, and sympathy.From the entry datafy
We took flowers as a gesture of sympathy.From the entry gesture
We don’t need your stinking sympathy.From the entry stinking
Team Starmer’s purge of anyone suspected of Corbynite sympathies has been strikingly successful.2024 April 20, Katy Balls, “Confessions of a defecting Starmtrooper”, in The Spectator. From the entry Starmtrooper
And sympathy cz I work in IT industry and know how these things go.2023 October 18, u/m2slam, “Cities: Skylines 2 devs warn players of performance problems: 'we have not achieved the benchmark we…. From the entry cz
Johnson and expressed sympathy for Britain in its bitter divorce with the European Union.2021 June 7, Mark Landler, “As a Tense Summer Looms, Northern Ireland Braces”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry cultivate
The move won us the sympathy and devotion of the Lesvians, especially the Mytilinians.2015, George A. Rados, Makedonia, iUniverse, →ISBN. From the entry Lesvian
Plus, Johnson said, in a blatant appeal to islandist sympathies: “It's not like I'm a weekender.”2013, Pam Belluck, Island Practice. From the entry islandist
Like the appeals to sympathy and generosity, the appeal to civic-mindedness attempts to capitalize on benevolent feelings.2012, Magedah Shabo, Techniques of Propaganda and Persuasion, →ISBN, page 104. From the entry civic-mindedness
He wanted Carol as a friend with her practicality, serenity and unsmothering sympathy.2011, Ann Widdecombe, Father Figure. From the entry unsmothering
The Brink has no sympathy for claustrophobes or nyctophobes, people who are afraid of the dark.2009, J. C. Hutchins [pseudonym; Chris Hutchins], Personal Effects, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 14. From the entry nyctophobe
Albertano's more lateralist, Aristotelian sympathies are also reflected in his choice of setting, scenario and protagonists.2008, Kathleen A. Bishop, The Canterbury Tales Revisited: 21st Century Interpretations, page 236. From the entry lateralist
I can’t help being angry with people who try to claim sympathy when they are feeling bereaved.2006, Virginia Ironside, No! I Don’t Want to Join a Bookclub, Fig Tree, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 242. From the entry fruitcaky
He singlehandedly played good-cop-bad-cop, refusing to budge while expressing sympathy for their plight.1999, The New York Times Biographical Service. From the entry good-cop-bad-cop
Some San Diego County junior high schoolers, particularly girls, had little sympathy for the former basketball great.1991 November 9, Jonathan Gaw, Marc Lacey, Hugo Martin, “Pupils Cry a Bit, Learn Life Lessons”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.…. From the entry junior high schooler
With sympathy and support, Chang decided to receive and train the Vietnamese revolutionists.1969, King C. Chen, Vietnam and China, 1938-1954, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 46. From the entry Liuchow
It is impossible not to feel sympathy with shedmasters in the difficulty they experience in obtaining cleaners.1953 October, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 686. From the entry shedmaster
W. - members who had no sympathy with the bummery element.1924, Proceedings of the National Convention of the Socialist Labor Party, page 36. From the entry bummery
Bowen laughed unassumedly, and the fat man laughed in sympathy with him.1918, H. Bedford-Jones, Bob Bowen comes to Town. From the entry unassumedly
But so little used was he to seeking sympathy that he could not unburden himself.1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company…. From the entry temporise
It does not bring in its train loss of faith or weakening of sympathies.1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, page 120. From the entry train
In several songs to Poland Snoilsky gave vent to his sympathy.1907, H. E. Larsson, “Swedish Literature. During the Period 1865-1890.”, in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 6…. From the entry Scandinavianist
In my amors I had hitherto found no intellectual equality or sympathies.1905, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Selection in Man, page 240. From the entry amor
He is of sympathy, a tremendosity, a richness, a vagueness, that quite satisfies me.”1903, James Henry, “The Idealists”, in The Mortarboard, […] [T]he Junior Class of Barnard College, books II–III, pages 86–87. From the entry tremendosity
I would have said that he had achieved mechanical sympathy.2023 November 13, James Somers, “A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast…. From the entry mechanical sympathy
I didn't have sympathy for this man.2021, Lolah Lace, The Boss Lady 3. From the entry chuck the deuces
That is because we are endowed with the sentiment of sympathy, which they also called benevolence, pity, and commiseration.2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 1: Dare to Understand!”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress…. From the entry cosmopolitanism
But might environmental scholars and activists find it in themselves to muster some sympathy for these, shall we say, "complicated" stances?2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 42. From the entry postfactual
Together they’ve helped both actors burrow deeply into their roles and have made sure that our sympathies divide neatly.2018 April 10, Alexis Soloski, “Review: In ‘Dutch Masters,’ Subway Seatmates, So Close and Yet So Far”, in The New York Times. From the entry broish
That's why—” “I knows,” answered Lowee, nodding in sympathy.2016, A.C. Baantjer, DeKok and Murder by Melody, Fulcrum Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry senniment
She’d lost all sympathy for the dog.2015, Elke Becker, translated by Terry Laster, chapter 5, in Over the Fench, Seattle, Wash.: AmazonCrossing, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry dogs have masters; cats have staff
Lovingkindness Meditation, which is the third core practice, focuses bringing love, compassion, sympathy, and joy into your life.2014, Michael J. Cavallaro, “Finishing Core Meditation with Lovingkindness”, in Ten Minutes to Deep Meditation: Techniques that Reduce…. From the entry lovingkindness

Meaning of sympathy

noun A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.
noun The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
noun The ability to share the feelings of another.

Full definition of sympathy

Questions about sympathy in a sentence

How do you use sympathy in a sentence?: Sympathy is used as a noun. For example: “Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.”
What is a short sentence with sympathy?: “We don’t need your stinking sympathy.”
What does sympathy mean?: Sympathy means a feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sympathy (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use sympathy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sympathy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.