Introducing Comprathy

Why Empathy and Sympathy Just Aren’t Enough – Introducing ‘Comprathy’

Comprathy is the act of supporting someone when you know you can’t truly comprehend what they’re going through — even though you’re trying. The word blends comprehend and empathy, recognising that some experiences are beyond our personal understanding. Unlike sympathy, which can keep you at a distance, or empathy, which assumes you can step fully into someone’s shoes, comprathy is honest about that gap. It says: I can’t fully understand your pain, but I’m here, I’m listening, and I want to help in the ways you need.

Our emotional vocabulary is rich, but sometimes it still falls short. Two words we reach for often when supporting others are empathy and sympathy. They’re both valuable, but neither quite captures a certain type of understanding and support I’ve found myself wanting to express. That’s why I’ve created a new word: comprathy.

As a Mum, SENCo, SEND consultant, and author with over 24 years in the field of education, my work has always centred on understanding and supporting others. I am a massive advocate of teaching emotive vocabulary and regulation skills from the early years onwards so that children are able to both name and understand how they feel. My book ‘The Feeling Furballs’, sets out to do just this.

Recently however, I’ve found that neither empathy nor sympathy fully captured a certain type of connection I often needed in my work and life. That’s why I created the concept of comprathy, and secured the domains to share it with the world — so people everywhere can have a word for those moments when they want to support someone deeply, even without being able to fully comprehend their experience. By giving this feeling a name, I hope to empower others to connect with honesty, humility, and genuine care.

Where Comprathy fits in

Sympathy is the feeling of sorrow or pity for someone else’s misfortune. It’s rooted in compassion, but it positions you as an outsider looking in: I feel sorry for you. Sympathy acknowledges pain but can sometimes create distance, as if you’re standing on the shore, watching someone in the water.

Empathy goes deeper. It’s the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes — to imagine their experience and feel it alongside them. Empathy bridges the gap between observer and participant, allowing you to say: I understand how you feel. But here lies the problem; sometimes we simply can’t. Some life experiences are beyond our personal frame of reference. To pretend we fully understand them can feel hollow, inauthentic and unhelpful.

That’s where comprathy comes in.

The word comprathy comes from comprehend and also links strongly with compassion (the deep awareness of another’s suffering, paired with the desire and commitment to help relieve it). It’s about recognising that, in certain situations, you simply cannot comprehend what it’s truly like for the other person — even though you’re trying. Comprathy is the conscious act of acknowledging those limits while still choosing to stand beside someone, to listen, and to offer support in ways that matter to them. It’s saying: I can’t fully understand what you’re going through — but I’m here, I’m listening, and I want to help.

It’s humility paired with action.

Where sympathy can keep you at a distance, and empathy assumes you can step fully into someone’s world, comprathy is honest about the gap — and chooses to bridge it through presence and care rather than assumption.

Why does this matter?

Because there are moments in life — bereavement, trauma, loss, experiences that are worlds apart from our own — when empathy and sympathy alone aren’t enough. We need a word that allows us to show up authentically without pretending to understand what we cannot.

Hence, I developed the word comprathy and in turn the verb, to comprathise. Born from the realisation that the term ’empathy’ has severe limitations, but compassion does not. I hope it earns a place in your vocabulary — and more importantly, in your relationships.

If you like this addition to the English language, please leave a comment and share this website far and wide so that I can get the word included in the English dictionary and more importantly, enable it to be used by everyone to allow people to express themselves fully in those many situations where empathy just isn’t enough.

Thank you for reading.

Lynn How

11.08.25

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