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Word: pathos (lookup usage) (lookup stats)


Meaning:

Noun:

  • literature An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
  • rhetoric A writer's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions not strictly limited to pity.
  • 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.
  • theologyphilosophy 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.

Source: Wiktionary | Src Info »