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.
Yes. EMPATHY is in the Scrabble-style word list used by our tools and scores 17 points in Scrabble, 17 in Words With Friends and 18 in Wordfeud (base tile values, no board multipliers). Always check the dictionary your game uses (NWL, Collins or the WWF list) before playing.
| Letter | E | M | P | A | T | H | Y | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scrabble | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 17 |
| Words With Friends | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Wordfeud | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 18 |
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.
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.
Anagrams: no other word uses exactly the letters of EMPATHY.
Hooks: no front hooks; no back hooks.
Words inside EMPATHY: 108 shorter words can be made from these letters – highest scoring: HEMPYHEAPYTHYMEEMPTYHYPEMYTHHEMPHYPETYMAHYTEMATEYMEATY. See all words from EMPATHY.