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# sympathetic

adjective (sympathetic, more sympathetic, most sympathetic)

«sympathetic» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Sympathetic means showing that you understand and care about someone's sadness or problems: a sympathetic friend. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#m1)
2. Sympathetic to an idea or group means agreeing with it or supporting it. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#m2)
3. A sympathetic character in a story is one readers like and care about. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#m3)

### In the lessons

Feelings and PSHE: being sympathetic means listening, saying kind words, and helping when a friend is upset. English lessons: authors make a character sympathetic by showing their struggles and kindness. Science (older pupils): the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for «fight or flight».

### Examples

- The nurse was very sympathetic when I hurt my arm. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x1)
- My friends were sympathetic when my cat died. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x2)
- The head teacher is sympathetic to our idea for a garden. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x3)
- The hero is a sympathetic character because he is brave and kind. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x4)
- She gave me a sympathetic smile. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x5)
- Not everyone was sympathetic to his complaints. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x6)
- But, when the two heroes met face to face, both were seized with an impulse of sympathetic admiration for each other. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/#x7)

### Note

False friend: in many European languages (French sympathique, Spanish simpático, Ukrainian «симпатичний») the word means «nice, likeable» or «good-looking», but English «sympathetic» means «understanding and caring about someone's troubles». Noun: sympathy. Compare: empathy (feeling what another person feels).

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «sympathetic» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sympathetic/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«sympathetic» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/sympathetic.html) on Mova free.