compassionate

/kəmˈpæʃənət/

/kəmˈpæʃənət/

Other forms: compassionating; compassionated; compassionates

If you are compassionate, you feel other people's pain and struggles as though they were your own. Compassionate people are often moved to work to end the suffering of others, perhaps by feeding the hungry or educating the poor.

Compassionate comes from the Old French noun compassion, which means "sympathy, pity." The adjective, pronounced "cuhm-PASH-uh-nuht," means "sympathetic," like a compassionate friend who shares in your joys and sadnesses, wanting the best for you. As a verb, compassionate, here pronounced "cuhm-PASH-uh-nate," means "pity," as in your ability to compassionate with stray dogs and cats.

Definitions of compassionate

1. adjective

   showing or having compassion
   “heard the soft and compassionate voices of women”

   synonyms:

   caring

   feeling and exhibiting concern and empathy for others

   nurturant

   providing physical and emotional care and nourishment

   tenderhearted

   easily moved by another's distress

   humane

   marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering

   merciful

   showing or giving mercy

   sympathetic

   expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward

   antonyms:

   uncompassionate

   lacking compassion or feeling for others

   hardhearted, stonyhearted, unfeeling

   devoid of feeling for others

   merciless, unmerciful

   having or showing no mercy

   unsympathetic

   not sympathetic or disposed toward
2. verb

   share the suffering of
   synonyms: condole with, feel for, pity, sympathize with

   types:

   commiserate, sympathise, sympathize

   feel or express sympathy or compassion

   care

   feel concern or interest

   condole

   express one's sympathetic grief, on the occasion of someone's death

   type of:

   grieve, sorrow

   feel grief