Antonyms for compassion
kəmˈpæʃ əncom·pas·sion

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. compassionnoun

   Synonyms:
   ruth, mercy, kindness, sorrow, empathy, tenderheartedness, heart, pity

2. compassionnoun

   Deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it

   Synonyms:
   tenderheartedness, empathy, pity, mercy, ruth, sorrow, kindness, heart

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:2.0 / 1 vote

1. compassion

   Mercy is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of kindness or favor beyond what one may rightly claim. Grace is favor, kindness, or blessing shown to the undeserving; forgiveness, mercy, and pardon are exercised toward the ill-deserving. Pardon remits the outward penalty which the offender deserves; forgiveness dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one offended; mercy seeks the highest possible good of the offender. There may be mercy without pardon, as in the mitigation of sentence, or in all possible alleviation of necessary severity; there may be cases where pardon would not be mercy, since it would encourage to repetition of the offense, from which timely punishment might have saved. Mercy is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, they besought the robber to have mercy. Clemency is a colder word than mercy, and without its religious associations, signifying mildness and moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal or military, rather than moral sanction; it often denotes a habitual mildness of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is matter rather of good nature or policy than of principle. Leniency or lenity denotes an easy-going avoidance of severity; these words are more general and less magisterial than clemency; we should speak of the leniency of a parent, the clemency of a conqueror. Compare PITY.

   Antonyms:
   cruelty, hardness, harshness, implacability, justice, penalty, punishment, revenge, rigor, severity, sternness, vengeance

   Synonyms:
   benevolence, benignity, blessing, clemency, favor, forbearance, forgiveness, gentleness, grace, kindness, lenience, leniency, lenity, mercy, mildness, pardon, pardon, pity, tenderness

   Preposition:
   The mercy of God to or toward sinners; have mercy on or upon one.

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:3.0 / 3 votes

1. compassion

   Antonyms:
   hardheartedness, unforgiveness, cruelty, antipathy, denunciation, condemnation, vindictiveness, retaliation

   Synonyms:
   pity, sympathy, condolence, tenderness, fellow-feeling, commiseration, pardon

Matched Categories

1. • Mercifulness
   • Sympathy

Princeton's WordNetRate these antonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. compassion, compassionatenessnoun

   a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering

   Synonyms:
   compassionateness, pity

2. compassion, pitynoun

   the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

   Synonyms:
   shame, commiseration, pathos, compassionateness, pity, ruth

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:3.0 / 2 votes

1. compassionnoun

   Synonyms:
   pity, sympathy, commiseration, condolence mercy

Editors ContributionRate these antonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. self-pity

   the ability to understand the suffering of others

   Submitted by anonymous on November 17, 2019  

How to use compassion in a sentence?

1. André Maurois:

   Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.

2. Sherif Elsayed-Ali:

   To not even allow entry to people who are fleeing a conflict zone with serious injuries because they don't have ID papers shows a chilling lack of compassion and appalling disregard for their rights to health and life.

3. Taya Kyle:

   I don't need to romanticize Chris because our reality is messy, passionate, full of every extreme emotion known to man, including fear, compassion, anger and pain.

4. Steve Maraboli:

   In this busy world, we should never be a stranger to love and compassion. It is the fertile soil in the garden of peace."

5. Scott C. Holstad:

   There's a big hole in people, even the long legged ones, and they eat and eat because they don't want to die; at least they want to revel in their misery for one more day, and they look back at me with suspicious eyes and then they go back to their dead life and dream of peace and love and compassion, and I continue to stare at them in a blurred stupor.

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