sympathetic.

1. Understanding or caring about another person's feelings or difficulties.

2. Agreeing with or favoring an idea, cause, or proposal.

3. Relating to the autonomic nervous-system division associated with mobilizing bodily activity.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• sympathetic listener
• sympathetic response

On the page

The sympathetic listener did not mistake comfort for a solution.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Comparative more sympathetic; superlative most sympathetic when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, behavior. Commonness: moderately common.