The noun empathy means the ability to understand another person’s feelings, thoughts and emotions.
Synonyms are affinity, sympathy, compassion or insight.
The word origins from Greek empatheia “passion, state of emotion” and was translated 1858 by the German philosopher Rudolf Lotze to Einfühlung (ein = in, and Fühlung = feeling). The older word sympathy is closely related to empathy but has a different meaning. Sympathy implies the ability to share feelings of another, whereas empathy means having the capacity to imagine the feelings of another but not actually sharing them.
She has a great empathy with dogs and is able to teach them anything.
The lack of empathy and understanding with each other made them lose the game.
Tom’s big advantage is his empathy and high emotional intelligence for others.