sympathize

CEFRB2

/sˈɪmpəˌθaɪz/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To feel or show care for someone's problems.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To say in an expression of sympathy.

Examples

  • I couldn't but sympathize with the girl who had lost her parents in the accident.

  • I sympathize with you from the bottom of my heart.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).

  2. 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

  3. To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.

More examples

In context

  • It is easier to sympathize with sorrow than to sympathize with joy.

  • “How much he slapped my sons—you should see their swollen faces, Panditji,” said Dukhi. […] “Poor children,” sympathized Pandit Lallaram.

  • […] naturally the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederacy, as one aristocrat with another, against a race of dollar lovers like the Yankees.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

I can truly blank with your pain after your dog died last week.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy + -ize. Displaced native Old English efnþrōwian (literally “to suffer with or together”).