Love vs. Sympathy

By Jaxson

Main Difference

The main difference between Love and Sympathy is that the Love is a strong, positive emotion based on affection and Sympathy is a perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another human being

  • Love

    Love encompasses a variety of strong and positive emotional and mental states, ranging from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection and to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse differs from the love of food. Most commonly, love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment. Love can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection, as “the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”. It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one’s self or animals.Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts. Love has been postulated to be a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.Ancient Greek philosophers identified five forms of love: essentially, familial love (in Greek, Storge), friendly love (Philia), romantic love (Eros), guest love (Xenia) and divine love (Agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of love: unrequited love, infatuated love, self-love, and courtly love. Asian cultures have also distinguished Ren, Kama, Bhakti, Mettā, Ishq, Chesed, and other variants or symbioses of these states. Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.

  • Sympathy

    Sympathy (from the Greek words syn “together” and pathos “feeling” which means “fellow-feeling”) is the perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form. This empathic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint, from a personal perspective to the perspective of another group or individual who is in need.

Wikipedia
  • Love (noun)

    Strong affection.

  • Love (noun)

    A profound and caring affection towards someone.

    “A mother’s love is not easily shaken.”

    “My husband’s love is the most important thing in my life.”

  • Love (noun)

    Affectionate, benevolent concern or care for other people or beings, and for their well-being.

  • Love (noun)

    A feeling of intense attraction towards someone.

    “I have never been in love as much as I have with you.”

  • Love (noun)

    A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.

  • Love (noun)

    A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.

    “Hello love, how can I help you?”

  • Love (noun)

    A thing, activity{{,}} etc which is the object of one’s deep liking or enthusiasm.

  • Love (noun)

    Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction.

  • Love (noun)

    Sexual activity.

  • Love (noun)

    An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair.

  • Love (noun)

    Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young.

  • Love (noun)

    .

  • Love (noun)

    A thin silk material.

  • Love (noun)

    A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba”.

  • Love (noun)

    Zero, no score.

    “So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.”

  • Love (verb)

    To have a strong affection for (someone or something).

    “I love my spouse.”

    “I love you!”

  • Love (verb)

    To need, thrive on.

    “Mold loves moist, dark places.”

  • Love (verb)

    To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.

    “I love walking barefoot on wet grass;”

    “I’d love to join the team;”

    “I love what you’ve done with your hair”

  • Love (verb)

    To care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).

  • Love (verb)

    To derive delight from a fact or situation.

    “I love the fact that the coffee shop now offers fat-free chai latte.”

  • Love (verb)

    To lust for.

  • Love (verb)

    To have sex with, (perhaps from make love.)

    “I wish I could love her all night long.”

  • Love (verb)

    To praise; commend.

  • Love (verb)

    To praise as of value; prize; set a price on.

  • Sympathy (noun)

    A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another; compassion.

  • Sympathy (noun)

    The ability to share the feelings of another.

  • Sympathy (noun)

    A mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.

  • Sympathy (noun)

    Tendency towards or approval of the aims of a movement.

    “Many people in Hollywood were blacklisted merely because they were suspected of Communist sympathies.”

Wiktionary

Love Illustrations

Sympathy Illustrations

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