What's the difference between condolence and sympathy?

Condolence


Definition:

  • (n.) Expression of sympathy with another in sorrow or grief.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) She expressed her condolences to Winehouse's parents, Mitch and Janis, who did not attend the inquest, marking the loss of "a talented woman at such a young age".
  • (2) Obama is expected to offer personal condolences to his counterpart Park Geun-Hye over the tragedy, but the South's unpredictable northern neighbour is set to dominate the agenda.
  • (3) Organizers of the anti-violence protest during which the attack took place addressed media on Friday morning to speak out against the killings and give their condolences to the families of the officers killed.
  • (4) My condolences to his family and friends February 27, 2017 The culture minister, Matt Hancock, said Kaufman, former chairman of the culture select committee, had “a distinctive voice and championed the arts in parliament”.
  • (5) US president Barack Obama saluted the late king’s commitment to close US – Saudi ties and offered condolences.
  • (6) Hughes’s former team, the South Australian Redbacks, said they had lost their mate “Hughesy.” “Our deepest condolences to all his family and friends.
  • (7) Gordon Brown today said he felt for the grieving mother who criticised him over a letter of condolence he sent after her son died in Afghanistan.
  • (8) One that went viral offered condolences to the people of Boston after the bombing there, and reminded the world that such things happen in Syria every day.
  • (9) In a statement, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius sent his condolences to the families of the victims, and announced that the French embassy in Kabul was working alongside the Afghan authorities to assist the injured.
  • (10) "My condolences go out to the family of the late great Joe Frazier.
  • (11) In a statement, Care UK “offers its condolences” and adds that prison was not the right place for Dean Saunders.
  • (12) The UN offered condolences to the families of the dead, but described the use of guns as "legitimate defence" of its staff, and thanked the army and police for holding back the crowd.
  • (13) US leaders, including President Barack Obama and General John Allen, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, have rushed to express condolences over the killings of mostly women and children, and promised a thorough investigation.
  • (14) I am sending condolences to the families of those murdered and wishes of a speedy recovery to the wounded,” the Israeli leader said.
  • (15) The board of governors extends its continued heartfelt condolences to his parents and family."
  • (16) Speaking before signing a book of condolence on a lectern in the middle of Seville Place directly facing the church, the ex-prime minister said he could not fathom why the paper's columnist had launched what thousands have condemned as a homophobic attack on the singer's memory.
  • (17) Twitter flowed with praise for his talent and condolences to his family.
  • (18) The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, released a statement late on Friday and offered his condolences.
  • (19) Ireland's deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, extended his condolences to Conlon's family.
  • (20) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Japanese people express their condolences for Kasasbeh, outside the Jordanian embassy in Tokyo.

Sympathy


Definition:

  • (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.) Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion.
  • (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.) A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other; as, the sympathy between the loadstone and iron.
  • (n.) Similarity of function, use office, or the like.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Hulk Hogan’s status as a public figure, even one who holds forth often and at length about his sex life, may have kept him from getting the kind of sympathy that the subject of the escort story immediately received, but there’s no evidence Bollea intended for anyone to see the tape.
  • (2) Former Tory minister Edwina Currie has tweeted that she had "no sympathy" for food bank users, that they were just "opportunists".
  • (3) With Fury, I’m not going to have no remorse, I’m not going to have no sympathy.
  • (4) I have no quarrel with the overall thrust of Andrew Rawnsley's argument that the south-east is over-dominant in the UK economy and, as someone who has lived and worked both in Cardiff and Newcastle upon Tyne, I have sympathy with the claims of the north-east of England as well as Wales (" No wonder the coalition hasn't many friends in the north ", Comment).
  • (5) He added: “I have no sympathy for real paedophiles.
  • (6) But obviously if people have been injured or indeed killed that is a tragedy and our sympathies are with the victims and their families.” He added: “We never condone violence – whatever the cause.
  • (7) A Facebook page created for friends, family and well-wishers to write messages of sympathy was filling with tributes.
  • (8) Kafka's faceless and amoral heroes, on the other hand, inspire no sympathy at all.
  • (9) There was little sympathy from the Lib Dems' coalition partners in the Conservative party.
  • (10) A year after the establishment of the so-called caliphate by Islamic State , western governments are struggling for strategies to challenge sympathy among their citizens towards the militants.
  • (11) You could think the narrator's extreme failures of sympathy are despicable, but this would surely be beside the point.
  • (12) Its coverage was so vindictive and blatantly unfair that it succeeded in winning sympathy for the prime minister, not an easy thing to do these days.
  • (13) The curator Clare Browne has a certain sympathy for Bock – “he was a serious collector, and he saved many pieces which would otherwise certainly have been destroyed” – but even she is startled that he ran his scissors straight through the figure of Christ, sparing only the face, which ended up in the V&A’s half.
  • (14) Speaking at a press conference following the preview of his latest film, Melancholia, von Trier expressed sympathy for Hitler, remarked that Israel was "a pain in the arse" and jokingly confessed to being a Nazi .
  • (15) The Labour leader is determined to retain autonomy on policy and to avoid being dictated to by his party when he is not in sympathy with the message it is giving him.
  • (16) Too many of his answers start with, “I have some sympathy with what you say, but...”; he comes across as just another politician.
  • (17) He has little sympathy for those displaced along the way.
  • (18) This includes the carbon content of fuels, driver behaviour, infrastructure, as well as the potential of car connectivity and intelligent transport systems (ITS).” The industry’s position has won the sympathy of oil companies, which also oppose fuel economy targets for 2025 and 2030.
  • (19) "I've got a great deal of sympathy with the situationist position.
  • (20) Perhaps monstering earns underdog sympathy, with contempt for the press as rife as contempt for conventional politics.