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PlainSpell

sympathy

/ˈsɪm.pə.θi/noun

sympathy is spelled S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-Y: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “empathy vs sympathy” about 90,500 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, sympathy means “A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sympathy is sympathies.

How many letters and syllables are in sympathy?

Letters8: S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-Y
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing10 times per million words; the 7,009th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is sympathy?

Sympathy appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sympathy?

  • US /ˈsɪm.pə.θi/
  • /ˈsəm.pə.θi/

Sympathy has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sympathy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with sympathy

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

empathy vs sympathy90,500 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of sympathy

  • sympathies plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sympathy mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.

  2. 2

    The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.

  3. 3

    The ability to share the feelings of another.

  4. 4

    Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.

  5. 5

    Support in the form of shared feelings or opinions.

  6. 6

    Feeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.

    Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.

  7. 7

    An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.

  8. 8

    Mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sympathy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcompassion, sympathie, condoléance (feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or…), empathie (ability to share the feelings of another…)
GermanMitleid, Mitgefühl (feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or…), Empathie, Einfühlungsvermögen (ability to share the feelings of another…), Sympathie (mutual relationship)
Portuguesecompaixão (feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or…), empatia (ability to share the feelings of another…), afinidade (mutual relationship)
Spanishcompasión (feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or…), empatía (ability to share the feelings of another…), afinidad (mutual relationship)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sympathy come from?

Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympathīa (“feeling in common”), from Ancient Greek σῠμπᾰ́θειᾰ (sŭmpắtheiă, “fellow feeling”), from σῠμπᾰθής (sŭmpăthḗs, “affected by like feelings; exerting mutual influence, interacting”) + -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, “-y”, nominal suffix). Equivalent to sym- (“acting or considered together”) + -pathy (“feeling”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sympathy