Showing understanding and caring concern for another person's difficulty or feeling.
Reach for it when praising a listener or response that recognizes distress without taking it over
The sympathetic manager listened to the full account before discussing the missed shift.
| everyday | |
|---|---|
| warm |
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| professional | |
| formal |
everyday
Fits when grasping the person's circumstances reduces judgment
Careful Understanding can be intellectual and need not include emotional concern.
warm
Fits when ongoing concern for well-being matters
Careful Care can exist without understanding this particular difficulty.
warm
Fits when concern includes a strong wish to relieve suffering
Careful Compassion is deeper and more action-oriented than every sympathetic response.
warm
Fits when concern shapes courteous action
Careful Consideration may follow manners or foresight rather than shared feeling.
professional
Fits when entering or accurately grasping another's felt perspective is central
Careful Empathy need not include agreement or the benevolent concern of sympathy.
professional
Fits when willingness to hear the concern is all that is known
Careful Listening openly does not yet establish sympathetic feeling.
professional
Fits when practical or emotional help strengthens the person
Careful Support can be effective without the helper feeling sympathy.
formal
Fits when treatment protects dignity and minimizes suffering
Careful Humane is a standard of conduct and may sound impersonal in a card.
sympathetic person
A sympathetic person, Nelu made room for both anger and embarrassment.
sympathetic ear
The exhausted volunteer needed a sympathetic ear before considering solutions.
sympathetic response
Her sympathetic response acknowledged the fear without promising an easy outcome.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Dvortygirl, American accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Updated
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