empathy

Empathy (em-puh-thee)- noun

Definition:
the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this (merriam-webster.com)

Translated defintion:
to be able to identify with how another person feels and fully understand and be sensitive to them and help them through it

Other forms:
empathetic (adjective)
empathist (noun)

Original sentences:
1. People try to be sympathetic, friends try to be nice and help you through problems, but to be truly empathetic you need to have somehow experienced the same feeling and fully understand what the person is going through.
2. When people have been through a lot and they are very good at helping others that are going through tough times they are truly empathists.

Best time to use:
A good time to use the word empathy is when you are telling a story on a time when somene you knew or were close to was going through a tough time in their life and you were empathetic towards them and you helped them through this rough time. Also, you can use the word empathy when you are in an interview process and you have to describe things about yourself and what kind of person you are, because a lot of times people ask you about your personality.

Synonyms:
The word sympathy is similar to the word empathy but there is a very big difference. Sympathy is when you care about someone else's feeling whereas empathy is when you can really identify with the feelings of that person.

Antonyms:
An antonym of the word empathy is the word "misunderstanding", these words are pretty much complete opposites. Empathy is an act of true understanding of someone else's feelings and misunderstanding is the complete opposite of this, like misjudging someone's feelings and not knowing what they are.

Rate its usefulness:
I give the word empathy five out of five stars because it is a very original word, it cannot be exactly replaced by any other words because of its one of a kind definition. Also, it is a very useful word, because using it is an easy way of telling someone that you 100% understand and can identify with what they're feeling.

Picture:
This video shows the word empathy being used in correct context by someone on ABC news, and a real issue surrounding empathy.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=12750376