How to Use sympathetic in a Sentence

sympathetic

1 of 2 adjective
  • I didn't find the hero in the movie very sympathetic.
  • He received much help from sympathetic friends.
  • My kid could not be like this, sympathetic at first sight.
    — Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 8 Apr. 2026
  • That’s much more sympathetic than just being a mean old witch.
    — Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Rather than being sympathetic, my mom cut off all my hair that went down to my waist to up past my ears.
    — Annie Lane, oregonlive, 11 Mar. 2023
  • Weiss is hinting at a change of venue, which means the plan is to try again with a more sympathetic judge.
    — Harold Maass, The Week, 15 Aug. 2023
  • Other times a sympathetic ear or a hopeful hint about where her son might be.
    — Sara Sidner, CNN, 14 May 2023
  • Shouldn’t this person talk to you with a sympathetic ear or feign concern?
    — Yadi Rodriguez, cleveland, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Rarely has a fine old building’s airspace been used to such sympathetic effect.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Neither group would prove to be sympathetic figures to irate fans.
    — Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 May 2026
  • The film is so sympathetic toward you.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 23 Oct. 2025
  • There are images of war from the point of view of a child, and sympathetic characters die.
    — Common Sense Media, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Triantis’ return date is up in the air; the club is being sympathetic to him.
    — Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Of course, the clergy and the church can and do serve as more than sympathetic victims of state overreach.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2026
  • And Biden keeps putting up hurdles for even the most sympathetic of readers.
    — Amy Davidson Sorkin, New Yorker, 9 June 2026
  • Last year, a big company bought the house from the sympathetic landlord.
    — Aidan Gardiner, New York Times, 18 July 2023
  • Gail Fritz is less sympathetic.
    — Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Brown has become a sympathetic figure to many Kings fans.
    — Chris Biderman, Sacbee.com, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Some shows have taken a more sympathetic approach.
    — Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
  • This is the kind of overwrought language that even sympathetic readers like me find laughable.
    — Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 20 Oct. 2025
  • And in a way, that felt incredibly sympathetic to me.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Is that maybe there are some people within those intel agencies that aren't as sympathetic.
    — Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Sep. 2025
  • What happens then, thanks to sympathetic teachers and some parents, makes for a great ending.
    — Mary Ann Grossmann, Twin Cities, 21 Dec. 2025
  • Weiss was sympathetic, but did not quite commit to fellowship.
    — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
  • With a smart aleck’s wit and a knack for clear-eyed lyrics, the Brooklyn singer is a sympathetic narrator.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 5 May 2023
  • Others, such as my friend Jemele Hill, were sympathetic, but only to a point.
    — David Aldridge, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Filing a case there improves the odds of getting it in front of a sympathetic judge but doesn’t guarantee it.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The remedy for upsets is to be sympathetic and fierce, making tough love the best approach.
    — Lisa Stardust, Refinery29, 30 Jan. 2026
  • The employee lends a sympathetic ear and lines up dresses on a rack for Angela.
    — Uwa Ede-Osifo, Dallas Morning News, 12 Jan. 2026
  • You also might be concerned and sympathetic with someone.
    — Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 16 Aug. 2025

sympathetic

2 of 2 noun
  • But even those of us sympathetic to the movement could understand it better.
    — Star Tribune, 11 July 2021
  • Trump argued that families are trained to play sympathetic to get asylum.
    — Jaclyn Peiser, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Oct. 2020
  • His pants were cut at the knee by a fellow Olympian sympathetic to his less than ideal racing uniform.
    — Outside Online, 29 July 2021
  • The task of making a heinous character sympathetic is the real work of many novels.
    — New York Times, 24 Mar. 2021
  • Gary Kiedaisch, a commissioner sympathetic to their cause, quit too.
    — Adam Drapcho, BostonGlobe.com, 27 July 2022
  • Ninidze makes Penkovsky sympathetic and, much harder to do, plausible.
    — Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Mar. 2021
  • All of the creatures in this world are multifaceted, with designs that can shift from frightening to sympathetic.
    — Diana Hubbell, Wired, 22 Mar. 2021
  • Taylor got a lot of sympathetic — and empathetic — messages, but no solid leads.
    — Kate Santich, orlandosentinel.com, 10 Dec. 2021
  • But deans and chairs must appoint a faculty hiring committee sympathetic to the aims of the benefactor.
    — Michael Poliakoff, Forbes, 12 Apr. 2022
  • But within police departments, there often is a very different view, even among those sympathetic to calls for reform and the need to curb excessive force.
    — Griff Witte, Nick Miroff, Anchorage Daily News, 11 June 2020
  • Al Jazeera is funded by Qatar, which is close to Ennahda and sympathetic to Islamist groups.
    — Washington Post, 27 July 2021
  • Skinner is far more winning and sympathetic in his underdog role, while Lumley, despite her brash efforts, is not well-served by her underdeveloped part.
    — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 29 Sep. 2021
  • These prefab scenarios, though glancingly sympathetic, barely amount to subplots.
    — Sophia Nguyen, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2021
  • Overbreathing activates your sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system, which, in turn, activates your stress response and engages rapid, shallow breathing.
    — Dana Santas, CNN, 7 July 2021
  • The majority of respondents were either supportive or sympathetic to skipping vaccines.
    — Ashley Fetters Maloy and Will Oremus, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Dec. 2021
  • Wanda is watching Malcolm in the Middle when Vision interrupts to offer her a sympathetic (if synthetic) ear.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Russian yachts being seized across Europe as nations sympathetic to Ukraine's plight press sanctions that include impounding assets of Russia's wealthy class.
    — Editors, USA TODAY, 13 Mar. 2022
  • Kashmiri militants sympathetic to Pakistan have continued to carry out attacks against Indian civilians and soldiers.
    — Washington Post, 29 Oct. 2021
  • But the show never really conveys her beliefs — one of many soft-pedalings from creator Robbie Pickering to render his protagonist sympathetic.
    — Washington Post, 22 Apr. 2022
  • The arrest set off a small riot among the city’s European residents, who were angry at the arrest of a passenger on a French ship (and very likely sympathetic to the Confederate cause).
    — Graham Cornwell, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 May 2021
  • For instance, accounts sympathetic to Diana at the time stressed her despair over Charles’s infidelity while conveniently eliding her own adulterous adventures.
    — Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Luckily, there are some signs that the American people are more-or-less sympathetic with President Biden's argument that withdrawal was a painful necessity.
    — Ryan Cooper, The Week, 21 Aug. 2021
  • Tired of Haitian resistance, the Americans installed Louis Borno, a savvy politician sympathetic to the occupation, as president.
    — New York Times, 20 May 2022
  • Those who are considerate, warm, and sympathetic are more likely to build collaborative relationships and be strong in relationship building, a competency that helps establish bonds and trust across distance.
    — Tomoko Yokoi, Quartz at Work, 17 June 2020
  • And the head of Germany's navy was forced to resign after comments sympathetic to Russia in a drama that suggested an effort to cover-up deep divisions within the West about how to handle Putin.
    — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 24 Jan. 2022
  • Agudath Israel is appealing the case to the Supreme Court, which gained a jurist sympathetic to religious liberty arguments when Barrett was appointed.
    — Shira Hanau, sun-sentinel.com, 18 Nov. 2020
  • That victory – the first ever for an Amazon facility in the United States – came as a surprise even to those sympathetic to the union’s calls for a $30 hourly wage and better working conditions for warehouse workers.
    — Haleluya Hadero, The Christian Science Monitor, 18 Oct. 2022
  • Rachel Berry, a sympathetic, but egotistical heroine who strove to be in the spotlight, notoriously made her life goal to play Fanny Brice on Broadway, an arc which was prominently part of the show's plotline for many seasons.
    — Wilson Wong, NBC News, 12 July 2022
  • Almost immediately, members of the public sympathetic to the defendant touted Tamura’s actions as a laudable continuation of the defendant’s philosophy.
    — Peter D'abrosca, FOXNews.com, 7 May 2026
  • Almost immediately, members of the public sympathetic to the defendant touted Tamura’s actions as a laudable continuation of the defendant’s philosophy.
    — Michael Ruiz, FOXNews.com, 18 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sympathetic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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