empathie

\ɑ̃.pa.ti\

/\ɑ̃.pa.ti\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“empathie” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #13,585. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#13,585
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Capacité de comprendre, de ressentir les sentiments ou de se mettre à la place d’une autre personne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-empathie · empathie · French

empathie · rank #13,585 · 11 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #13,585
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH easy

Nearest frequency peer: easy (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « empathie »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « empathie » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

empathie vs empathique
80% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for empathie
PropertyValue
Headwordempathie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɑ̃.pa.ti\
Letters8
Frequency rank#13,585
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « empathie »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.empathiese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « easy » (#13,584), « empêchera » (#13,586), « développant » (#13,583). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « empathie » est au #13,585. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around empathie (IPA \ɑ̃.pa.ti\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #13,585 among 3,255 “E” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for empathie, with forms such as "emapthie", "emmpathie", and "empahtie". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "empathique", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is empathie, spelled E-M-P-A-T-H-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Capacité de comprendre, de ressentir les sentiments ou de se mettre à la place d’une autre personne.
  2. 2
    Dans la tradition phénoménologique, appréhension immédiate de l’affectivité d’autrui.
  3. 3
    Dans les sciences humaines, attitude envers autrui caractérisée par un effort de compréhension intellectuelle de l’autre, excluant tout entraînement affectif personnel (sympathie, antipathie) et tout jugement moral (caractéristique du sens historique, pénétration de cultures étrangères, techniques d’entretien, psychiatrie, etc.).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how empathie appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. À condition de ne pas se méprendre sur le sens du mot empathie. « C’est la volonté de comprendre l’autre de l’intérieur, tout en sachant qu’on n'y est pas », souligne Jacques Lecomte, docteur en psychologie […].
  2. Si le bébé est traité avec empathie, compassion et compréhension, ses propres capacités à développer ces qualités s’épanouissent en miroir.

Synonyms

décentration

Antonyms

apathie

This word in other languages

empathy(English)empatía(Español)Einfühlungsvermögen(Deutsch)empatia(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emapthie
  • emmpathie
  • empahtie
  • empathei
  • empathhie
  • empatihe
  • empatthie
  • emppathie
  • emptahie
  • epmathie
  • mepathie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of empathie - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

emapthie2emmpathie1empahtie2empathei2empathhie1empatihe2empatthie1emppathie1
Edit distance from "empathie"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "empathie"?
"empathie" is spelled E-M-P-A-T-H-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.pa.ti\.
What does "empathie" mean?
As a noun, "empathie" means: Capacité de comprendre, de ressentir les sentiments ou de se mettre à la place d’une autre personne.
What words are commonly confused with "empathie"?
"empathie" is commonly confused with "empathique". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "empathie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "empathie" is \ɑ̃.pa.ti\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "empathie" come from?
"empathie" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "empathie", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

défiance#13,578excitant#13,593faisceau#13,596décevoir#13,573

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

désirer11 variantsCréteil11 variantscourriers11 variantsManitoba11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list