sympathetic

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in the meaning 'eliciting sympathy' rather than 'feeling sympathy', dates from the beginning of the 20th century. Despite Fowler's reservations (he wrote in 1926 when it was still a new meaning), it has become rapidly established in standard English:

Despite the sympathetic portrayal of his father in these anecdotes, Lawrence turned against him after the death of his mother—J. Meyers, 1990.

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adjective

1. Cognizant of and comprehending the needs, feelings, problems, and views of others: empathetic, empathic, feeling, understanding. See understand/misunderstand.
2. Feeling or expressing pity: commiserative, compassionate, condolatory, pitying. Archaic piteous, pitiful. See feelings, pity.

adj

Definition: agreeable, friendly
Antonyms: cold, cool, disagreeable, unfriendly, unsociable, unsympathetic

adj

Definition: concerned, feeling
Antonyms: callous, merciless, uncaring, unconcerned, unfeeling, unsympathetic

IN BRIEF: Feeling and showing kindness toward others.

There is no greater loan that a sympathetic ear. — Frank Tyger.

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Pertaining to the sympathetic nervous system.

• acute s. blockade — trauma to the cervical spinal cord may be associated with bradycardia and hypotension.
• s. chain — the sympathetic trunk whose ganglia suggest a chain of beads.
• s. cholinergic vasodilator fibers — a system of efferent dilator nerves distributed only to skeletal muscles; the existence of the system has been verified only in cats and dogs; in other species where it is not present vasodilation is achieved only by relaxation of vasoconstrictor tone.
• s. nerves — 1. see sympathetic trunk (below).
— 2. any nerve of the sympathetic nervous system.
• s. nervous system — the part of the autonomic nervous system whose preganglionic fibers arise from cell bodies in the thoracic and lumbar segments of the spinal cord; postganglionic fibers are distributed to the heart, smooth muscle, and glands of the entire body.
• s. outflow — the preganglionic fibers from the nerve cells in the thoracolumbar cord.
• s. regurgitation — see neurotic regurgitation.
• s. trunk — two long ganglionated nerve strands, one on each side of the vertebral column, extending from the base of the skull to the coccyx.
• s. trunk ganglia — ganglia situated segmentally along the paired sympathetic trunks beside the vertebral bodies.

(sim′pəthet′ik)
adj

Pertaining to the sympathetic nervous system.

For a list of words related to sympathetic, see:

• Warm, Friendly, Sensitive, or Loving
• Helpful, Positive, Responsible, or Nice

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See words rhyming with "sympathetic."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Sympathetic.

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - sympatisk, medfølende, forstående

Nederlands (Dutch)
welwillend, sympathiek, harmonieus

Français (French)
adj. - compréhensif, compatissant, de sympathie (une lettre), favorable, en accord/en harmonie avec, (Méd) (ortho) sympathique, relatif au système neurovégétatif

Deutsch (German)
adj. - verständnisvoll, mitfühlend, sympathisch, ansprechend, (Mus.) mitschwingend

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - συμπονετικός, σπλαχνικός, καλοπροαίρετος, (ιατρ.) συμπαθητικός

Italiano (Italian)
benevolo, simpatico

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - simpatizante

Русский (Russian)
человек, подверженный гипнозу, симпатическая нервная система, симпатический нерв, сочувственный, благожелательный, близкий по духу, симпатичный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - benévolo, complaciente, simpático

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - sympatisk, full av medkänsla, förstående, välvillig

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
有同情心的, 赞成的, 合意的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 有同情心的, 贊成的, 合意的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 동정심 있는, 동정적인, 마음에 드는

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 同情のある, 気持に調和した, 気の合った, 交感的な
n. - 交感神経, 感じやすい人

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) مؤيد , ناظر بعين العطف , متجانس‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מביע אהדה, משתתף ברגשות הזולת, סימפתי, מעורר רגשות אהדה, ידידותי, חביב, מעורר רגשות (נוף וכדו'), נגרם עקב כאב במקום אחר/למישהו אחר (כאב), (מערכת העצבים) המשרתת את האברים הפנימיים, הבלוטות וכלי הדם‬

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