sympathy
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sympathy
[sim´pah-the]1. a sense of sharing another's feelings, especially in sorrow or trouble, through some mechanism of transference or an imaginative identification with the other's situation; it is a precursor to compassion.
2. an influence produced in any organ by disease, disorder, or other change in another part.
3. a relation that exists between people or things such that change in the state of one is reflected in the other.
Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
sym·pa·thy
(sim'pă-thē), Do not confuse this word with empathy.1. The mutual relation, physiologic or pathologic, between two organs, systems, or parts of the body.
2. Mental contagion, as seen in mass hysteria or in the yawning induced by seeing another person yawn.
3. An expressed sensitive appreciation or emotional concern for and sharing of the mental and emotional state of another person. Compare: empathy (1).
[G. sympatheia, fr. sym- + pathos, suffering]
Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012
sympathy
(sĭm′pə-thē)n. pl. sympa·thies
1.
a. A feeling of pity or sorrow for the distress of another; commiseration.
b. often sympathies An expression of such feeling: offered her sympathies to the mourning family.
2.
a. A relationship or affinity between things in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other: "Continuous measurements of ionospheric densities ... showed a variation of noon ionization in sympathy with sunspot activity" (E.V. Appelton).
b. Physics A relation between bodies such that vibrations in one body cause sympathetic vibrations in another.
c. Physiology A relation between parts or organs by which a disease or disorder in one induces an effect in the other.
The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
sympathy
Psychiatry A feeling or capacity for sharing in the interests or concerns of another, often without emotional attachment to the sympathy's recipient. Cf Empathy.McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
sym·pa·thy
(sim'pă-thē)1. The mutual relation, physiologic or pathologic, between two organs, systems, or parts of the body.
2. Mental contagion, as seen in mass hysteria or in the yawning induced by seeing another person yawn.
3. An expressed sensitive appreciation or emotional concern for and sharing of the mental and emotional state of another person.
Compare: empathy (1)
Compare: empathy (1)
Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012
sym·pa·thy
(sim'pă-thē) Do not confuse this word with empathy.Mutual relation, physiologic or pathologic, between two organs, systems, or parts of body.
Medical Dictionary for the Dental Professions © Farlex 2012