compassionate
adjective
Simple meaning
Showing kindness and concern for others who are suffering.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhmpashuhnuhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəmˈpæʃənət
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Having, feeling or showing compassion (to or toward someone).
“Heard the soft and compassionate voices of women.”
Given to someone as an exception because of a family emergency or a death in their family.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having, feeling or showing compassion (to or toward someone).
Used this way, compassionate is a common word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.
“Heard the soft and compassionate voices of women.”
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Kind and considerate
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use compassionate
- “Heard the soft and compassionate voices of women.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Leave granted in an emergency such as family sickness or death.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- lovingadjective
- caringnoun
- careverb
- intelligentadjective
- attitudenoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having or feeling or showing compassion (to
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.