Entry Word: sympathetic

Function: adjective

Meaning: 1 having or showing the capacity for sharing the feelings of another <a sympathetic smile> <Jane was always a sympathetic listener>

Synonyms compassionate, humane, understanding

Related Words gentle, sensitive, softhearted, tender, tenderhearted, warm, warmhearted; benevolent, benignant, charitable, kind; clement, lenient, merciful; cordial, friendly, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious; affectionate, loving

Near Antonyms inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, unthinking; uncaring, unloving; merciless, pitiless, ruthless; grim, hard-bitten, hard-boiled, harsh, oppressive, rough, severe, stern, tough, ungentle; abusive, acrimonious, disagreeable, hateful, ill-natured, ill-tempered, malevolent, malicious, mean, rancorous, spiteful, surly, virulent

Antonyms callous, cold-blooded, hardhearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, unfeeling, unsympathetic

2 having or marked by sympathy and consideration for others <a sympathetic store manager who let us use the employee restrooms> <sympathetic letters from supporters after the disappointing election results> — see humane 1