Word.ws English Dictionary

sympathizing

sympathizing is the alternative form of sympathising.

sympathizing is the present participle and gerund of sympathize.

Meaning of sympathising

Adjective

sympathising (comparative more sympathising, superlative most sympathising)

  1. sympathetic

Meaning of sympathize

Verb

sympathize (third-person singular simple present sympathizes, present participle sympathizing, simple past and past participle sympathized)

  1. (Canada, US, 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; to feel for.
    • […] 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...1711–1714, [Joseph Addison], The Spectator, number 273; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC
  2. (Canada, US, intransitive) To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).
    • ‘[…] 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. […]’1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 31, in North and South
  3. (Canada, US, transitive) To say in an expression of sympathy.
    • “How much he slapped my sons—you should see their swollen faces, Panditji,” said Dukhi. […]
      “Poor children,” sympathized Pandit Lallaram.1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 3, in A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, page 133
  4. (Canada, US, intransitive) To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.
    • […] the mind will sympathize so much with the anguish and debility of the body, that it will be […] too distracted to fix itself in meditation.1814, J. S. Buckminster, Sermons, Boston, Sermon 3, p. 55
  5. (Canada, US, obsolete, transitive) To share (a feeling or experience).
    • And all that are assembled in this place,
      That by this sympathized one day’s error
      Have suffer’d wrong, go keep us company,
      And we shall make full satisfaction.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  6. (Canada, US, intransitive) To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.
    • Henry V. The southern wind
      Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
      And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
      Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
      Henry IV. Then with the losers let it sympathize,
      For nothing can seem foul to those that win.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Noun

sympathizing (countable and uncountable, plural sympathizings)

  1. The act of one who sympathizes; the offering of sympathy.

Forms of sympathizing

Adjective
comparativemore sympathizing
superlativemost sympathizing
Noun
pluralsympathizings

Words formed from sympathizing

Questions about sympathizing

What does sympathizing mean?
Sympathizing means the act of one who sympathizes; the offering of sympathy.
What is sympathizing the alternative form of?
Sympathizing is the alternative form of sympathising.
What part of speech is sympathizing?
Sympathizing is a noun.
What is the plural of sympathizing?
The plural of sympathizing is sympathizings.

Words near sympathizing in the dictionary

  1. sympathize
  2. sympathized
  3. sympathizer
  4. sympathizers
  5. sympathizes
  6. sympathizing
  7. sympathizingly
  8. sympathizings
  9. sympatho-
  10. sympatho-adreno-medullary
  11. sympatho-adrenomedullary

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sympathizing (page history and authors); sympathising (page history and authors); sympathize (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “sympathizing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sympathizing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.