Sympathy

n. affinity, understanding; compassion, pity, concern, commiseration, empathy; approval

Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding her or his feelings. Sympathy comes from the Latin sympatha, from Greek: συμπάθεια transliterated as sympatheia, from συν + πάσχω = συμπάσχω literally: to suffer together or "feeling with." It also can mean being affected by like feelings or emotions. Thus the essence of sympathy is that one has a strong concern for the other person, but does not share that person's feelings. Sympathy should not be confused with empathy (more than simply the recognition of another's suffering, empathy is actually sharing another's suffering, if only briefly).
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Sympathy /sym·pa·thy/ 1. compassion for another person's thoughts, feelings, and experiences. 2. an influence produced in any organ by disease, [more]Sympathy - Community and Resources

Noun
1. an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion; "his sympathies were always with the underdog"; "I knew I could count on his understanding"
(synonym) understanding
(hypernym) inclination, disposition, tendency
(derivation) sympathize, sympathise, empathize, empathise, understand
2. sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)
(synonym) fellow feeling
(hypernym) feeling
(hyponym) concern
(derivation) commiserate, sympathize, sympathise
3. a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other; "the two of them were in close sympathy"
(hypernym) affinity, kinship
(hyponym) mutual understanding, mutual affection
(derivation) sympathize, sympathise

(n.)
The reciprocal influence exercised by the various organs or parts of the body on one another, as manifested in the transmission of a disease by unknown means from one organ to another quite remote, or in the influence exerted by a diseased condition of one part on another part or organ, as in the vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
  

(n.)
That relation which exists between different persons by which one of them produces in the others a state or condition like that of himself. This is shown in the tendency to yawn which a person often feels on seeing another yawn, or the strong inclination to become hysteric experienced by many women on seeing another person suffering with hysteria.
  

(n.)
Similarity of function, use office, or the like.
  

(n.)
Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion.
  

(n.)
Feeling corresponding to that which another feels; the quality of being affected by the affection of another, with feelings correspondent in kind, if not in degree; fellow-feeling.
  

(n.)
An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural temperament, which causes persons to be pleased, or in accord, with one another; as, there is perfect sympathy between them.
  

(n.)
A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other; as, the sympathy between the loadstone and iron.