How to Use sympathy in a Sentence

sympathy

noun
  • She went to her best friend for sympathy.
  • Letters of sympathy were sent to the families of the victims.
  • My deepest sympathies go out to the families of the victims.
  • Our sympathies are with them.
  • There was no sympathy between them.
  • In the wake of the conflict, the dogs didn’t get much sympathy.
    Yana Paskova, National Geographic, 29 June 2018
  • The point of the show is not to garner sympathy for the affluent.
    Rachel Syme, The New Republic, 9 Sep. 2019
  • All of them hear our words of sympathy but not much more than that.
    Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, Forbes, 28 Jan. 2022
  • The reader is left to imagine the scene and wince in sympathy).
    Rosa Brooks, chicagotribune.com, 21 May 2018
  • Proust was among the many who sent letters of sympathy.
    Diane Cole, WSJ, 7 May 2021
  • In fact, the words empathy and sympathy both are believed to come from the word pathos.
    David Villa, Forbes, 13 Oct. 2021
  • His sympathy for the new college went back to his early days.
    Russell Pulliam, National Review, 6 Dec. 2020
  • Few inside the sport have matched that level of sympathy.
    Joshua Robinson, WSJ, 3 May 2018
  • Public sympathy will be on her side, but time and wider trends are not.
    Catherine Mayer, CNN, 14 Apr. 2021
  • But there was scant demand for them or sympathy for him there.
    Daniel Lewis, New York Times, 12 July 2023
  • To many people, that would feel like sympathy for the devil.
    Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 4 Aug. 2020
  • News of this tragedy elicited murmurs of surprise and sympathy in the room.
    Anant Gupta, Washington Post, 22 Sep. 2023
  • What the sentence is not based on is emotion or sympathy.
    ABC News, 27 June 2021
  • Make the casseroles, knock on doors, and put sympathy cards in mailboxes.
    Heather Asbury, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 15 Aug. 2020
  • This was not a decision reached in haste or based on sympathy with the victim.
    Aimee Ortiz, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Apr. 2018
  • There will be no sympathy for the Warriors, nor should there be.
    Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, 8 June 2019
  • But there was little sympathy for the president's plight among those who took to the streets.
    Anchorage Daily News, 18 Dec. 2019
  • Count me among those with little sympathy for their plight.
    WSJ, 10 Feb. 2020
  • As unions have weakened the public’s sympathy for them has grown.
    The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
  • These were no simple acts of sympathy in the wake of a horrific injury.
    Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 12 Oct. 2020
  • Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to his family and loved ones.
    CBS News, 25 Sep. 2023
  • This love and affection and respect is not out of sympathy.
    Alex Sundby, CBS News, 9 May 2023
  • Ainge, with his habit of winning trades, isn’t getting much sympathy around the league.
    Chad Finn, BostonGlobe.com, 17 June 2019
  • Women cut off their hair, in sympathy, in a Berlin protest.
    Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2022
  • Yet even in the heat of the moment, Wine-Banks could not help but feel some sympathy.
    Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 June 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sympathy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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