Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To feel or express sorrow or pity for; sympathize with.
  • intransitive verb To feel or express sympathy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To feel sorrow, regret, or compassion for, through sympathy; compassionate; pity: applied to persons or things: as, to commiserate a person or his condition.
  • To regret; lament; deplore; be sorry for.
  • To express pity for; condole with: as, he commiserated him on his misfortune.
  • Synonyms To sympathize with, feel for, condole with.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To feel sorrow, pain, or regret for; to pity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete, rare commiserating, pitying, lamentful
  • verb transitive To feel or express compassion or sympathy for (someone or something).
  • verb transitive, intransitive To offer condolences jointly with; express sympathy with.
  • verb intransitive To sympathize; condole.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb to feel or express sympathy or compassion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin commiserārī, commiserāt- : com-, com- + miserārī, to pity (from miser, wretched).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From commiserātus, the perfect passive participle of commiseror.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Modelled upon commiserāt-, the perfect passive participial stem of the Latin commiseror.

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Examples

  • While we often "commiserate" our victimhood with other people, it's a better idea to share how we authentically feel (in a vulnerable way) and to engage in an inquiry with people we trust about why this situation may be happening for us.

    Mike Robbins: Seeing Adversity As Happening for Us, Not to Us Mike Robbins 2010

  • Indeed, in the midst of the ongoing crisis in his state, Walker actually called Governor Kaisch of Ohio, who's contemplating similar proposals, to "commiserate" about what he's going through.

    The stakes in Wisconsin Greg Sargent 2011

  • While we often "commiserate" our victimhood with other people, it's a better idea to share how we authentically feel (in a vulnerable way) and to engage in an inquiry with people we trust about why this situation may be happening for us.

    Mike Robbins: Seeing Adversity As Happening for Us, Not to Us Mike Robbins 2010

  • While we often "commiserate" our victimhood with other people, it's a better idea to share how we authentically feel (in a vulnerable way) and to engage in an inquiry with people we trust about why this situation may be happening for us.

    Mike Robbins: Seeing Adversity As Happening for Us, Not to Us Mike Robbins 2010

  • While we often "commiserate" our victimhood with other people, it's a better idea to share how we authentically feel in a vulnerable way and to engage in an inquiry with people we trust about why this situation may be happening for us.

    Mike Robbins: Seeing Adversity As Happening for Us, Not to Us Mike Robbins 2010

  • The commiserate—not 'commiserate'—the kick to our ...

    08/29/2004 - 09/05/2004 2004

  • The commiserate—not 'commiserate'—the kick to our economy

    Archive 2004-09-05 2004

  • The commiserate—not 'commiserate'—the kick to our economy

    08/29/2004 - 09/05/2004 2004

  • Or is Twitter the latest and, to put it ironically, greatest step in the stripping of meaning from news, information and social discourse? to "commiserate" with other pre-dawn DJs, and chat with listeners.

    Today in Oregon: The Oregonian 2009

  • Or is Twitter the latest and, to put it ironically, greatest step in the stripping of meaning from news, information and social discourse? to "commiserate" with other pre-dawn DJs, and chat with listeners.

    Today in Oregon: The Oregonian 2009

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