EM-puh-thee
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It involves both cognitive understanding (perspective-taking) and emotional resonance (feeling with others). In word games, EMPATHY is a valuable 7-letter word that can earn a 50-point bingo bonus when played using all tiles from your rack.
17
Points in Scrabble
Base tile values • No multipliers applied
💡 Pro Tip:
EMPATHY is perfect for bingo plays! With common letters and multiple anagram possibilities, it's easier to play than many 7-letter words. The Y at the end also makes it valuable for setting up future plays.
Empathy is the capacity to understand, feel, and respond to the emotional states of others. It goes beyond mere recognition of another's feelings to include an emotional response that mirrors or complements their experience. This fundamental human ability allows us to connect with others, build relationships, and navigate social situations with sensitivity and understanding.
Unlike sympathy, which involves feeling sorry for someone from a distance, empathy requires stepping into another person's emotional experience. It combines cognitive elements (understanding what someone thinks and feels) with affective elements (sharing those feelings). This dual nature makes empathy both a skill that can be developed and an automatic response that occurs naturally in many situations.
In psychological terms, empathy involves multiple neural systems working together. Mirror neurons fire both when we perform an action and when we observe others performing the same action, creating a neurological basis for understanding others' experiences. The capacity for empathy varies among individuals and can be influenced by factors such as personal experiences, cultural background, mental health, and neurological differences.
Empathy plays a crucial role in moral development, social bonding, and cooperation. It motivates prosocial behavior, reduces prejudice, and facilitates conflict resolution. In professional contexts, empathy is essential for healthcare providers, educators, leaders, and anyone working closely with others. However, excessive empathy can lead to emotional burnout, making emotional regulation and boundaries important considerations.
The word "empathy" has a fascinating history as a relatively recent addition to English. It was coined in 1909 by British psychologist Edward Bradford Titchener as a translation of the German word "Einfühlung," which literally means "feeling into." The German term was originally used in aesthetics to describe how viewers project themselves into artworks.
The linguistic journey:
Before "empathy," English speakers used "sympathy" for all forms of emotional connection. The creation of "empathy" allowed for a crucial distinction: sympathy as feeling for someone, and empathy as feeling with someone. This linguistic innovation reflected growing psychological sophistication in understanding human emotional experiences.
The Greek root "pathos" (meaning suffering or feeling) appears in many English words: sympathy, antipathy, apathy, pathetic, and pathology. The prefix "em-" (a form of "en-") means "in" or "within," perfectly capturing the inward projection of feeling that characterizes empathy. This construction parallels the German "Einfühlung" and maintains the original concept of entering into another's emotional state.
Understanding others' thoughts
Also called "perspective-taking," this involves understanding how someone thinks and what they might be feeling without necessarily sharing those emotions.
Characteristics:
Feeling others' emotions
Also called "affective empathy," this involves physically feeling what another person feels, as if their emotions were contagious.
Characteristics:
Moved to help others
Also called "empathic concern," this combines understanding and feeling with a motivation to help or support the other person.
Characteristics:
Physical mirror response
The physical reaction to observing someone else's experience, like wincing when seeing someone get hurt.
Characteristics:
Researcher Brené Brown famously illustrated this difference: "Empathy fuels connection; sympathy drives disconnection." Empathy says, "I've been there, and this is really hard," while sympathy says, "That's bad, I'm sorry for you." The distinction lies in the willingness to be vulnerable and connect with the feeling beneath the experience.
Verb Form
empathize / empathise
She could empathize with his struggle.
Adjective Forms
empathetic / empathic
An empathetic response to grief.
Related Terms
Healthcare provider understanding
UX design tool for user understanding
Developing emotional intelligence
Lack of emotional understanding
Total base points: 17 (Scrabble)
Vowels: 2 | Consonants: 5
High-value letters: P (3), H (4), Y (4)
7-Letter Bingo Benefits:
Common letters make EMPATHY easier to achieve than many 7-letter bingos!
Words within EMPATHY
💡 Many playable options if you can't use all letters!
Notable features:
Tips for building EMPATHY:
Balance keeping tiles vs. scoring opportunities
"Her natural empathy made her an exceptional counselor, able to sit with clients in their pain without trying to fix or minimize their experiences."
"Teaching empathy to children involves helping them recognize emotions in others and understand that different people may feel differently about the same situation."
"The lack of empathy in online discussions often leads to misunderstandings and conflict that wouldn't occur in face-to-face conversations."
Healthcare: "Physician empathy correlates with better patient outcomes and satisfaction."
Leadership: "Empathetic leaders create psychological safety that encourages innovation."
Design: "User empathy drives creating products that truly meet people's needs."
The 21st century has seen an "empathy revolution" across multiple domains. From education curricula that include emotional intelligence to corporate training programs emphasizing empathetic leadership, society increasingly recognizes empathy as a crucial skill. This shift reflects growing awareness that technical competence alone is insufficient for addressing complex human challenges.
Technology presents both opportunities and obstacles for empathy. While digital platforms can connect us with diverse perspectives globally, they can also create echo chambers and reduce face-to-face interaction. The challenge of maintaining empathy in digital spaces has spawned new fields like digital wellness and online community management focused on preserving human connection.
The discovery of mirror neurons in the 1990s provided biological evidence for empathy, revolutionizing our understanding of social cognition. This scientific validation has influenced fields from autism research to artificial intelligence, as we attempt to understand and replicate this fundamental human capacity.
Empathy burnout
Overextending emotional resources
Projection vs. empathy
Assuming others feel as you would
Selective empathy
Only for similar people/groups
Empathy without boundaries
Losing self in others' emotions
Other valuable 7-letter words in Scrabble
Practice unscrambling letters to find more 7-letter bingo words like EMPATHY