SYMPATHIZE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sympathize mean? 

• SYMPATHIZE (verb)
  The verb SYMPATHIZE has 3 senses:

1. share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of

2. be understanding of

3. to feel or express sympathy or compassion

  Familiarity information: SYMPATHIZE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SYMPATHIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they sympathize    ... he / she / it sympathizes   
Past simple: sympathized   
Past participle: sympathized   
-ing form: sympathizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

sympathise; sympathize

Hypernyms (to "sympathize" is one way to...):

experience; feel (undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

sympathizer (someone who shares your feelings or opinions and hopes that you will be successful)

sympathy (a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be understanding of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

empathise; empathize; sympathise; sympathize; understand

Context example:

You don't need to explain--I understand!

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

sympathy (an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

To feel or express sympathy or compassion

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

commiserate; sympathise; sympathize

Hypernyms (to "sympathize" is one way to...):

compassionate; condole with; feel for; pity; sympathize with (share the suffering of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "sympathize"):

condole (express one's sympathetic grief, on the occasion of someone's death)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue sympathize

Derivation:

sympathizer (a person who commiserates with someone who has had misfortune)

sympathy (sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish))

 Context examples 

I've been through it all, and I can sympathize.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was still unable to sympathize.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yes, yes, Troubridge, I can understand and sympathize with your feelings.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was ignorant of the simplest duties of mate, and would have fared badly indeed, had the sailors not sympathized with me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They praised the morning; gloried in the sea; sympathized in the delight of the fresh-feeling breeze—and were silent; till Henrietta suddenly began again with—Oh! yes,—I am quite convinced that, with very few exceptions, the sea-air always does good.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

At length I begged him, with all the earnestness I felt, to tell me what had occurred to cross him so unusually, and to let me sympathize with him, if I could not hope to advise him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His pleasure in music, though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with her own, was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others; and she was reasonable enough to allow that a man of five and thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Go on, dear, patiently and bravely, and always believe that no one sympathizes more tenderly with you than your loving... Mother

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

With regard to Charles Hayter, she had delicacy which must be pained by any lightness of conduct in a well-meaning young woman, and a heart to sympathize in any of the sufferings it occasioned; but if Henrietta found herself mistaken in the nature of her feelings, the alteration could not be understood too soon.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

May I speak quite freely, and will you remember that it's Mother who blames as well as Mother who sympathizes?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)