compassionate
/kəmˈpæʃənət/
compassionate means having, feeling or showing compassion (to or toward someone). It carries an Arena rating of 1342, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, compassionate ranks #5,885 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #7,127 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #7,143 of 14,322 for Scariest Words, #7,152 of 14,445 for Most Beautiful Words.
compassionate is pronounced /kəmˈpæʃənət/.
Why “compassionate” is a great word
Having, feeling, or showing a sympathetic consciousness of another's distress together with a desire to alleviate it. From the French compassionné, past participle of compassionner ("to feel sorry for"), formed from compassion (from Latin compassio, "sympathy," from com- ["with"] + pati ["to suffer"]) + the adjectival suffix -ate. Unlike "sympathetic," which can denote a general emotional resonance, or "pitying," which observes from a condescending remove, "compassionate" demands a commitment to motion. It is the hand that steadies a shoulder racked with sobs, the stranger who kneels in the rain to help a fallen cyclist, and the silence held beside grief without the need to fill it—a quiet refusal to let suffering pass unacknowledged, where presence itself becomes a humble remedy.
Etymology
A pseudo-Latin form of French compassionné, past participle of compassionner (“feel sorry for”). By surface analysis, compassion + -ate.
adj
- Having, feeling or showing compassion (to or toward someone).“The Compassionate, the All-Compassionate”
- Given to someone as an exception because of a family emergency or a death in their family.“compassionate leave; a compassionate visa”
- Inviting or asking for pity.“It boots thee not to be compassionate:
After our sentence plaining comes too late.”
verb
- To feel compassion (for someone or with regard to something); to regard (someone or something) with compassion.“[…] seeing them die so wofully in the flames, he compassionated them.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.