1. Sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)
   "The tragedy brought out a sense of sympathy in the community";
   - fellow feeling
    
2. An inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion
   "his sympathies were always with the underdog";
   - understanding
    
3. A relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other
   "the two of them were in close sympathy"
    
4. Response in one element (a body, organ, mechanism, etc.) to changes in another; correlation between things
   "annual earnings moved in sympathy with all major business contractions"

Derived forms: sympathies

Type of: affinity, disposition, feeling, inclination, kinship, tendency

Encyclopedia: Sympathy