What's the difference between commiserate and pity?

Commiserate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To feel sorrow, pain, or regret for; to pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When I commiserate about the overnight flight that brought them here, Linney gives a wry grimace.
  • (2) Commiserations to the Dutch, but they didn't really turn up tonight, and were very poor.
  • (3) Why not come and celebrate or commiserate with a dip in the pool?
  • (4) With such knowledge comes a predictable illusion of power, though this is all too regularly punctured by the indignity of being kicked out of shiny receptions and told to use an entrance more befitting of our lowly status – or of having my pronunciation of “Southwark Street” incorrectly corrected by a receptionist, who gives her colleague a sidelong smirk, commiserating over my supposed ignorance.
  • (5) "The president commiserates with all the families who lost loved ones in the heinous attacks and extends his heartfelt sympathies to all those who suffered injuries or lost their properties during the wanton assaults on Bauchi and Kaduna States," said a statement.
  • (6) Putin thanked leaders of other countries for their commiseration, the Kremlin press service announced.
  • (7) Blair texted him with "commiserations" as did Brown, Coulson revealed.
  • (8) The deputy prime minister took the opportunity to claim that the first person to call Coulson to commiserate on his resignation was Labour former prime minister Gordon Brown.
  • (9) But while the arrival of the baby in question will be a cause for celebration for the parents, it is a matter for commiseration for the rest of us.
  • (10) When David Cameron phoned Ed Miliband on Monday morning with a briefing on Libya they commiserated with each other about being in the doghouse with their families for having broken off their holidays.
  • (11) Liquidation looks likely as MPs go home to commiserate with their local fallen councillors, and the Lib Dems overtake Labour.
  • (12) Even as Netanyahu took credit for the release of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit , welcoming him home in person at Tel Nof airbase, he was offering heartfelt commiserations to the relatives of Israelis killed by the Palestinian prisoners he freed in exchange.
  • (13) Instead, Boehner has offered McConnell not compromise but commiserations.
  • (14) Within seconds Bouchard was offering commiserations at the net.
  • (15) Richard Dawkins Oxford • I would like to congratulate Sarah Olney on becoming our new MP in Richmond Park, and give my commiserations to Zac Goldsmith.
  • (16) My trip back to commiserate with loved ones can wait a few weeks.
  • (17) ‘I’m sorry for my role as an adult’ The Seattle Resistance Salon was created partly to find others to commiserate with.
  • (18) Well done to everyone who got the results they wanted today, and commiserations to those that didn't.
  • (19) Asked to offer commiserations, Pellegrini said: “It is a pity for them.
  • (20) Mahmoud Muhim, the father of one of the dead protesters, took the microphone during the march and said: "Not one person has offered me commiserations.

Pity


Definition:

  • (n.) Piety.
  • (n.) A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.
  • (n.) A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted.
  • (v. t.) To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering.
  • (v. t.) To move to pity; -- used impersonally.
  • (v. i.) To be compassionate; to show pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The voters don’t do gratitude, self-pitying politicians are wont to moan.
  • (2) With grievous amazement, never self-pitying but sometimes bordering on a sort of numbed wonderment, Levi records the day-to-day personal and social history of the camp, noting not only the fine gradations of his own descent, but the capacity of some prisoners to cut a deal and strike a bargain, while others, destined by their age or character for the gas ovens, follow "the slope down to the bottom, like streams that run down to the sea".
  • (3) "); hopeless self-pity ("Nobody said anything to me about Billy ... all day long") and rage ("You want to put a bench in the park in Billy's name?
  • (4) Indeed, mainstream economics is a pitifully thin distillation of historical wisdom on the topics that it addresses.
  • (5) Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?” It is there to remind him that the dots are worth fighting for.
  • (6) Last year, Amnesty International described the world’s response as “pitiful” and earlier this week, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants called on the EU to deliver a proper resettlement programme.
  • (7) April's family had to endure the "spectacle of your hypocritical sympathy for their loss and of your tears", the judge told Bridger, saying any tears were motivated purely by self-pity.
  • (8) And this is the mainspring of so many of his stories, novellas, and his one novel, Beware of Pity : the clash between propriety and desire.
  • (9) It’s actually a pity that there’s now a break because I wanted to continue playing games,” said the Italian.
  • (10) In his final fight, against the journeyman boxer Kevin McBride, he was a pitiful figure - slumped in a corner, legs splayed, unable or unwilling to stand himself up.
  • (11) Other negative emotions – self-pity, guilt, apathy, pessimism, narcissism – make it a deeply unattractive illness to be around, one that requires unusual levels of understanding and tolerance from family and friends.
  • (12) He said it was a “pity” that the UK prime minister “wasn’t able to express the British position at the press conference with Donald Trump standing next to her”.
  • (13) As the turbulent commercial radio sector enters another new phase, Park wants to sweep away the thinking that has left too many of his colleagues wallowing in self-pity, and turn his fire on a familiar target.
  • (14) Broadly defined, this sort of behaviour involves procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, obstructionism, self-pity and a tendency to create chaotic situations.
  • (15) It is a pity we did not take our chances,” the Ukraine coach, Mykhailo Fomenko, said.
  • (16) "This depressing morning has now got me questioning my pitiful existence," sobs James Dodge.
  • (17) Foreign dignitaries were invited to attend for the first time and it is a pity that from Europe only Javier Solana chose to take the offer up.
  • (18) Men convicted of rape are often pitied in the media and, like Evans, quickly vault back to positions of fame .
  • (19) But after the strange denials that this old, sick man is dying I want to talk not with pity but of his power.
  • (20) Staff here dread the welfare reform bill, waiting for debts, arrears, evictions and pitiful hardship to wash up on their doorstep.