Definition of: sympathy

(sim′pə·thē) noun plural ·thies
1. The quality of being affected by the state of another with feelings correspondent in kind; a fellow feeling; a mutual affinity or susceptibility; reaction to such relationship.
2. A feeling of compassion for another's sufferings; pity; commiseration.
3. An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural temperaments, which makes persons agreeable to one another; congeniality; accord.
4. That quality of inanimate things by virtue of which they attract or influence one another, or are supposed to do so; affinity: a sense once much used in alchemy and astrology: the sympathy of the lodestone for iron. See synonyms under BENEVOLENCE, PITY. [<L sympathia <Gk. sympatheia <sympathēs feeling compassion with another <syn- together + pathos a feeling, passion]