# pathos

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈpeɪˌθɒs/ · frequency rank #35,870

## Definitions
1. The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
2. A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker uses emotional appeals to the audience as the main form of persuasion.
3. An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
4. In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
5. Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

## Etymology
From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).

## Easily confused with
- **pats** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-pats)
- **paths** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-paths)
- **patio** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-patio)
- **Paton** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-paton)
- **patrol** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-patrol)
- **Python** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-python)
- **patron** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-patron)
- **Patton** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-patton)
- **patrols** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-patrols)
- **pythons** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pathos-vs-pythons)
- **path** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/path-vs-pathos)
- **Palos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/palos-vs-pathos)
- **patches** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/patches-vs-pathos)

## Common misspellings (9)
`apthos`, `pahtos`, `pathhos`, `pathoss`, `pathso`, `patohs`, `patthos`, `ppathos`, `ptahos`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/pathos