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Unsympathetic means not sharing the feelings of someone or identifying with, caring about, or having any favor or support for someone or something.

It’s the opposite of sympathetic, which most commonly means having sympathy—having the same emotions as someone else, especially sadness.

Being sympathetic in this way is usually understood to mean that you feel bad for someone because they are in a negative situation. Being unsympathetic is the opposite—you don’t feel sorry.

Sympathetic is also sometimes used to mean supportive of or loyal to someone or something. Being unsympathetic in this way means you are not at all supportive or loyal.

Sometimes, unsympathetic is used to describe a person (or fictional character) who you can’t identify with or don’t care about.

Example: I’m completely unsympathetic—he should have known better.

The first records of unsympathetic come from the 1800s. The prefix un- means “not.” The base word, sympathetic, comes from the Greek ���⳾�貹�ٳ�ŧ�پ���ó��, from sym-, “with,” and ��á�ٳ�(�Dz�), “s�ܴڴڱ�����Բ�.”

Sympathetic is usually used to describe someone who shares feelings of sadness with others. Someone who’s unsympathetic does not share this feeling. When we say someone is unsympathetic in this way, we may be saying they’re cruel, or we may be saying that they don’t think someone is worthy of their pity.

Calling someone an unsympathetic figure or an unsympathetic character is usually different. This means we think that other people can’t identify with them or care about them, often because they themselves are the ones who are cruel or uncaring toward others.

What are some other forms related to unsympathetic?

• unsympathetically (adverb)
• sympathetic (adjective)
• sympathy (noun)

What are some synonyms for unsympathetic?

• indifferent
• insensitive
• uncompassionate

What are some words that share a root or word element with unsympathetic?��

• sympathize
• empathetic
• pathos
• pathetic
• apathy
• symmetry

What are some words that often get used in discussing unsympathetic?

• character
• figure
• voter
• pity
• feel
• feeling
• emotion
• care
• victim
• support

Unsympathetic is commonly used to describe people who don’t support or care about someone or something.

I find myself unsympathetic toward execs who burden their troops with 8 hours of meetings in a day and then complain that nothing got done

— Rick Gualtieri (@RickGualtieri)

There is a disturbing prevalence of people who remain unsympathetic to civil rights issues that don't seem to impact them personally. My position is we should work harder to fight against discrimination that doesn't impact us personally bc we are then likely privileged by it.

— Jo Kaur (@SikhFeminist)

State labor board rules Andover teachers held illegal strike but says it’s ‘not unsympathetic to the union’s concerns’ about health and safety

— masslivenews (@masslivenews)

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Which of the following words is NOT a synonym of unsympathetic?

A. commiserating
B. uncompassionate
C. indifferent
D. insensitive