The word sympathetic means different things in different contexts.
- In neurology and neuroscience, the sympathetic nervous system is a part of the autonomic nervous system
- In music theory, sympathetic strings are strings on a musical instrument that resonate without contact
- In psychology, sympathy is a feeling of compassion or identification with another
- In religion, magic, and anthropology, sympathy is the belief that like affects like, that something can be influenced through its relationship with another thing
- Sympathetic detonation, a detonation, usually unintended, of an explosive charge by a nearby explosion
- Sympathetic resonance, a harmonic phenomenon wherein a body responds to external vibrations
Famous quotes containing the word sympathetic:
“[W]hat I mean by love ... is this. A sympathetic liking—excited by fancy, directed by judgment—and to which is joined also a most sincere desire of the good and happiness of its object.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“What makes revolutionists is either self-pity, or indignation for the sake of others, or a sympathetic perception of the dominant undercurrent of progress in things. The nature before us is revolutionist from the direct sense of personal worth,... that pride of life, which to the Greek was a heavenly grace.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“Perhaps he was a bit different from other people, but what really sympathetic person is not a little mad?”
—Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)