different between attraction vs sympathy

English

Etymology

From Middle English attraccioun, from Old French attraction, from Latin attractio from past participle of attrah? (= ad + trah?), equivalent to attract +? -ion

Pronunciation

• (US, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??t?æk??n/, [??t?æk?(??)n], [??t???æk?(??)n]
• Rhymes: -æk??n

Noun

attraction (countable and uncountable, plural attractions)

1. The tendency to attract.

2. The feeling of being attracted.

3. (countable) An event, location, or business that has a tendency to draw interest from visitors, and in many cases, local residents.

4. (chess) The sacrifice of pieces in order to expose the enemy king.
5. (linguistics) An error in language production that incorrectly extends a feature from one word in a sentence to another, e.g. when a verb agrees with a noun other than its subject.

Synonyms

• charm
• pull

Antonyms

• repulsion

See also

• orientation

Translations

Anagrams

• tractation

French

Etymology

From Old French attraction, from Latin attracti?.

Pronunciation

Noun

attraction f (plural attractions)

1. attraction (all senses)

Derived terms

• parc d'attractions

Descendants

• ? Hungarian: attrakció

Further reading

• “attraction” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympath?a (“feeling in common”), from Ancient Greek ?????????? (sumpátheia, “fellow feeling”), from ???????? (sumpath?s, “affected by like feelings; exerting mutual influence, interacting”) +? -?? (-ia, “-y”, nominal suffix); equivalent to sym- (“acting or considered together”) +? -pathy (“feeling”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?m.p??.i/
• Rhymes: -?mp??i

Noun

sympathy (countable and uncountable, plural sympathies)

1. A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.

   Synonym: compassion

   1. (in the plural) The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
   2. The ability to share the feelings of another.
2. Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
   1. (in the plural) Support in the form of shared feelings or opinions.
   2. Feeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.

3. An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
   1. Mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it.
   2. (art) Artistic harmony, as of shape or colour in a painting.

Usage notes

• Used similarly to empathy, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathy is stronger and more intimate, while sympathy is weaker and more distant; see empathy: usage notes.

Antonyms

• contempt (context-dependent)

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “sympathy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “sympathy”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).