Sympathy:
Sympathy is the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s misfortune, grief, trouble, etc. When someone is sympathetic, one implies pity but maintains distance from other’s feelings. Sympathy often emphasizes that the grieving person is alone. Sympathy is a feeling of care and understanding for someone in need. It is feeling of understanding the issue.
Empathy:
The ability to understand other person’s circumstances, point of view, thoughts, and feelings. When experiencing empathy you are able to understand someone else’s internal thoughts. Empathy has many different definitions that encompass a broad range of emotional states including caring for other people and having a desire to help them; experiencing emotions that match other person’s emotions, discerning what another person is feeling or thinking and making less distinct the differences between the self and other. Empathy is much deeper sense of emotion.
Differences:
| Basis | Sympathy | Empathy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition (www.oxforddictionaries.com) |
Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune | The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. |
| Objectives/Purpose | The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. | |
| Synonyms | Sensitivity, mercy, condolence, kindness, compassion and understanding | Agreement, appreciation, fellow feeling, harmony, accord and concern |
| Antonyms | Coldness, atrocity, brutality, antagonism, dislike, cruelty | Viciousness, antipathy, darkness, nastiness, chill, hatred |
| Types | The three types of empathy are:
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| Word origin | The word sympathy was originated in Late 16th century: via Latin from Greek sumpatheia, from sumpathēs, from sun- ‘with’ + pathos ‘feeling’. | The word empathy was originated in Early 20th century: from Greek empatheia (from em- ‘in’ + pathos ‘feeling’) translating German Einfühlung. |
| Literal | Sympathy is literally “feeling with”. | Empathy is literally “feeling into”. |
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| Advantages/Benefits | Its advantages are:
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