sym|pa|thet|ic

sym|pa|thet|ic «_SIHM puh THEHT ihk», adjective, noun.

–adj.

1. having or showing kind feelings toward others; sympathizing: »

She is an unselfish and sympathetic friend. ... an unusually tender and sympathetic audience (Dickens); a look of sympathetic concern (Fanny Burney).

SYNONYM(S): compassionate, commiserating, tender.

2. approving; agreeing: »

The teacher was sympathetic to the class's plan for a trip to the museum. When the third volume of Das Kapital came out, even economists sympathetic to Marx expressed disillusion and disappointment (Edmund Wilson).

3. enjoying the same things and getting along well together.

4. harmonious; agreeable: »

a sympathetic environment.

SYNONYM(S): congenial.

5. a) of or having to do with the sympathetic nervous system. b) of or having to do with the entire autonomic nervous system.

6. Physics. a) produced in one body by transmission of vibrations of the same frequency from another body: »

sympathetic vibrations.

b) produced by responsive vibrations induced in one body by transmission of vibrations of the same frequency through the air or other medium from another: »

The phenomena of resonance are examples of sympathetic sound.

–n.

1. a nerve of the sympathetic nervous system.

2. = sympathetic nervous system. (Cf. ↑sympathetic nervous system)