An empathetic person can stand in someone else’s shoes. They do not only feel sorry from the outside; they can take in how the other person feels and what the problem is like from the inside. We also call a look, a reply, or a piece of writing empathetic when it shows that understanding. Being empathetic is not the same as agreeing, and it is not the same as being sympathetic (feeling pity or support). The older scholarly adjective is empathic. Empathetic was reshaped to sound more like sympathetic, and that is the form most people use now. You hear it in counselling, teaching, and kind conversation. It is warm, not slang, and not stiff.