How to spell sympathy

hear itsym·pa·thy/'sɪmpəθi/nounRules and real life

What it means: Sharing the feelings of others, especially sorrow.

In a sentence: She showed sympathy by hugging her friend when he was sad.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as simpathy or sympothy.

Same family: sympathetic, sympathetically, empathy, compassion, condolences. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Sympathy” comes from Greek roots meaning “feeling with,” from syn- (“together, with”) and pathos (“feeling, suffering”). It is closely related to “empathy,” which literally means “feeling in” and often suggests an even deeper emotional understanding.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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