commiserate
kuh-MIZ-uh-rayt
/kəˈmɪzəreɪt/
To express or feel sympathy or pity for someone; to share distress through conversation.
Emphasizes verbal sharing or gathering together to comfort one another over common hardship.
The story behind the word. Borrowed in the late 16th century directly from Latin 'commiseratus', past participle of 'commiserari', literally 'to pity together'.
Word relationships
- console: Console emphasizes actively offering comfort to soothe grief, while commiserate stresses shared mutual lament.
- gloat: Gloat means taking malicious pleasure in another's failure, opposite to commiserating.
Commonly confused with
- condolence: Commiserate is a verb for sharing grief; condolence is a noun for formal statements of grief.
Word family
- commiseration (noun): Expression of sympathy.
Collocations
- commiserate with
- gather to commiserate
- commiserate over
Idioms & expressions
- commiserate together
Example sentences
- "After the project was canceled, team members gathered at a café to commiserate over lost effort." Workplace gathering
- "They sat together by the fire to commiserate each other's losses during the long harsh winter." Literary classic
Memory hook
COMmiserate = COMing together when MISERable to talk about it. Sharing misery together in conversation.
When not to use
Do not use for solitary, unexpressed emotions or joyful celebrations.
Fun facts
- The root 'miser' in commiserate is also the source of the English words 'miserable' and 'miser'.
Related words
Explore more words
sympathize, sympathetic, compassionate, solace, lament, soothe
Also appears in
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