commiseration means the act of commiserating; sorrow for the hardships or afflictions of another; pity; compassion. It carries an Arena rating of 1710, earned across 44 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, commiseration ranks #3,374 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #5,222 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,238 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #7,029 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
Why “commiseration” is a great word
COMMISERATION — [Noun] Sympathy and sorrow for the hardships or afflictions of another; pity or compassion. From Middle French commisération, from Latin commiserātiōnem, from commiserārī ("to pity"), from com- ("together") + miserārī ("to lament, pity"), from miser ("wretched"). Unlike "condolence"—a formal courtesy offered from solid ground—or "empathy"—the act of stepping fully into another's emotional shoes—commiseration is the shared, sheltering crouch on the same patch of damp earth. It is the sigh exchanged over a third ruined umbrella, the rueful shake of the head at a common friend's folly, the silent clink of two glasses after a day of comparable defeat—a quiet, secular pact that misery, at least, does not have to be lonely.
Etymology
From Middle French commisération.
noun
- The act of commiserating; sorrow for the hardships or afflictions of another; pity; compassion.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.