Word.ws English Dictionary

sympathetic

/ˌsɪm.pəˈθɛt.ɪk/

sympathetic adjective: of, related to, feeling, showing, or characterized by sympathy.

Adjective

sympathetic (comparative more sympathetic, superlative most sympathetic)

  1. Of, related to, feeling, showing, or characterized by sympathy.
    • John looked very upset. I gave him a sympathetic look.
    • Vaublanc, in San Domingo so sympathetic to the sorrows of labour in France, had to fly from Paris in August, 1792, to escape the wrath of the French workers.1963, C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd revised edition, page 14
    Antonyms:
    unsympathetic
    1. Showing approval of or favor towards an idea or action.
  2. Attracting the liking of others. (of a person)
    1. Designed in a sensitive or appropriate way.
  3. (relational) Relating to, producing, or denoting an effect which arises through an affinity, interdependence, or mutual association.
    • Sympathetic magic is based on imitation or correspondence.
    • sympathetic ink
    1. (relational) A supernatural connection or power resulting from two items having the same form or some other correspondence. (of magic)
      • One of his great enthusiasms was for a "sympathetic" weapon salve, an idea originating in Paracelsus.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 225
    2. (relational, sound) Relating to musical tones produced by sympathetic vibration or to strings so tuned as to sound by sympathetic vibration.
  4. (relational) Relating to or denoting the part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves arising from ganglia near the middle part of the spinal cord, supplying the internal organs, blood vessels, and glands, and balancing the action of the parasympathetic nerves.
    • Sympathetic innervation involves epinephrine.
    • It was suggested that adrenaline might act at the junction of sympathetic nerves and the effector organs, and that adrenaline might be released at sympathetic nerve endings.1967, Leslie L. Iversen, The Uptake and Storage of Noradrenaline in Sympathetic Nerves, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 23
    Antonyms:
    parasympathetic

Noun

sympathetic (plural sympathetics)

  1. A sympathetic nerve.

sympathetic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sympathetic in Hindi

sympathetic
हमदर्द hamdard
sympathetic, sensitive
भावुक bhāvuk

sympathetic in Tamil

பெயர்ச்சொல், பரிவு, பரிவதிர்வுத் தொகுதி, ஒப்பியைவதிர்வு மண்டலம், உடனதிர்வு நரம்பு, பைங்கணர்

sympathetic in Marathi

सहानुभूतीशील, सहानुभूतीपूर्ण

sympathetic in Urdu

ہمدرد, خدا ترس
More languagesFewer languages
sympathetic in Bengali
সহানুভূতিশীল śohanubhutiśil
sympathetic in Malayalam
അനുതാപമുളള, ദീനാനുകമ്പയുളള, ഹാർദ്ദമായ, അനുഭാവമുളള
sympathetic in Punjabi
ਹਮਦਰਦੀਪੂਰਨ
sympathetic in Gujarati
સહાનુભૂતિશીલ, સહાનુભૂતિપૂર્ણ
sympathetic in Odia
ସହାନୁଭୂତିଶୀଳ
sympathetic in Nepali
सहानुभूतिशील, सहानुभूतिपूर्ण

Examples of sympathetic in a sentence

  • Government MPs sympathetic to the opposition's arguments are starting to break cover.
  • It contained these themes, but also had a sympathetic Asian and Black, or “Blasian,” protagonist.
  • The lone farmstand worker, sympathetic to my fugue state, encouraged me to try one—raw.

All 40 example sentences with sympathetic

Synonyms of sympathetic

Antonyms

Forms of sympathetic

Adjective
comparativemore sympathetic
superlativemost sympathetic
alternative formsympathetical
alternative form (obsolete)sympathetick
Noun
pluralsympathetics

Origin of sympathetic

Mid 17th century in the sense “relating to an affinity or paranormal influence”, from Latin sympathēticus. By surface analysis, sympathy + -etic (“pertaining to”); compare pathetic. Displaced native Old English efnþrōwiende.

Words formed from sympathetic

Phrases with sympathetic

Words that rhyme with sympathetic

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sympathetic

What does sympathetic mean?
Sympathetic means of, related to, feeling, showing, or characterized by sympathy.
What is sympathetic in Hindi?
Sympathetic in Hindi is हमदर्द (hamdard), भावुक (bhāvuk). See Sympathetic meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sympathetic?
Sympathetic can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce sympathetic?
Sympathetic is pronounced /ˌsɪm.pəˈθɛt.ɪk/.

Words near sympathetic in the dictionary

  1. sympathectomizes
  2. sympathectomizing
  3. sympathectomy
  4. sympathetectomies
  5. sympathetectomy
  6. sympathetic
  7. sympathetic chain
  8. sympathetic chains
  9. sympathetic detonation
  10. sympathetic detonations
  11. sympathetic hyperactivity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sympathetic (page history and authors); भावुक (Hindi) (page history and authors); sympathetic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sympathetic (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sympathetic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); সহানুভূতিশীল (Bengali) (page history and authors); sympathetic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sympathetic (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sympathetic (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sympathetic (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sympathetic (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sympathetic.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sympathetic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sympathetic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.