empath

English

Etymology

From empathy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛm.pæθ/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

empath (plural empaths)

1. One who has the ability to sense emotions; someone who is empathic or practises empathy.
2. (science fiction, parapsychology) A person with extra-sensory empathic ability, capable of sensing the emotions of others around them in a way unexplained by conventional science and psychology.
   • 1957, Hans Stefan Santesson, editor, Fantastic Universe:

     She was the empath who would betray empaths if she got the chance. So they'd tried to fix things so that she didn't get the chance.

   • 2005, Catherine Asaro, Schism:

     How did a complete stranger know he was an empath? He rarely if ever talked about it, even to his closest friends. It made people uneasy.

   • 2007, Ellen Dugan, Natural Witchery:

     The aura may, in fact, linger around objects or places and that "lingering energy" is what an empath senses and intuits.

Derived terms

• dark empath

 

Translations

one who has the ability to sense emotions

• German: Empath m, Empathin f
• Hungarian: empata
• Portuguese: pessoa empática f

person with extra-sensory empathic ability

• Finnish: empaatti
• German: Empath m
• Spanish: émpata m or f

See also

• telepath