Pathos

Noun

 * 1) That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
 * 2)  A writer's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions not strictly limited to pity.
 * 3)  An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
 * 4)  In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.

Adjectives for Pathos
infinite; poignant; anxious; half-baked; puerile; sharp; exquisite; melodious; thin; instant; ever-present; intense; sobbing; despairing; expressible; grim; deep; extraordinary; celestial; stern; unfathomable.

Verbs for Pathos
bear—; catch—; endure—; experience—; harbor—; taste—; —affects; —agitates; — dwells; —impresses; —infects; —mantles; —moves; —palpitates; —pierces; —produces; —responds; —shakes; —warms.

Thesaurus
lamentation, leniency, mercy, mitigation, mournfulness, pain, painfulness, pardon, pitiability, pitiableness, pitifulness, pity, poignancy, quarter, regrettableness, relating, relief, reprieve, response, responsiveness, ruth, sadheartedness, sadness, self-pity, sharing, sharpness, sorrowfulness, sympathetic chord, sympathetic response, sympathy, vibes, vibrations, woebegoneness, woefulness, bathos, benevolence, bitterness, bleakness, caring, cheerlessness, chord, clemency, comfortlessness, commiseration, compassion, concern, condolence, depression, discomfort, dismalness, distress, distressfulness, dreariness, echo, empathy, favor, feeling, fellow feeling, forbearance, forgiveness, grace, grief, grievousness, heaviness, heaviness of heart, heavy heart, heavyheartedness, humanity, identification, involvement, joylessness, kindness, lamentability,

Etymology
From πάθος:.

Related terms

 * antipathy
 * empathy
 * pathetic
 * patience
 * patient
 * pathology
 * pathogen
 * sympathy
 * psychopathy

Translations

 * Bosnian: ,
 * Finnish:
 * Greek:
 * Hebrew: פתוס
 * Mongolian: гаслан
 * Scottish Gaelic: drùidhteachd


 * Serbian:
 * Cyrillic: патос, патетика
 * Roman: patos, patetika

Anagrams

 * Pashto
 * potash