Empathy means to understand and share a similar feeling with other people. The word empathy can be used both as a noun and as a Verb. When we use it as a verb it is changed to empathize.
It means to feel sad for somebody else’s situation or tragedy.
Let us now see the difference between the two in the table below:
Empathy |
Sympathy |
It means to understand the feelings of others because one might have felt similar at some time. |
It means to feel sad or sorry for another person, but not necessarily feel the same. |
Normally shared by the people of the same economical and social status. |
Normally used towards people of lower economic and social status. |
A person who has empathy probably has gone through similar feelings before. |
A person who has sympathy for others does necessarily have gone through a similar feeling. |