1. adjuration

2. admonishment

3. admoniti

4. advice

5. advisement

6. advisements

7. affection

8. affinity

9. agreement

10. aid

11. all-merciful

12. alliance

13. altruism

14. amiability

15. amity

16. analysis

17. appreciation

18. assistance

19. attention

20. attentiveness

21. attraction

22. auroras

23. be compassionate

24. be merciful

25. be pitied

26. be sorry

27. be sympathetic

28. being compassionate

29. benefaction

30. beneficence

31. beneficent god

32. benevolence

33. benignancy

34. benignity

35. bewail

36. big-heartedness

37. bigheartedness

38. bigness

39. bleeding heart

40. bounteousness

41. bountifulness

42. bounty

43. bowels

44. broad-mindedness

45. brotherly love

46. calmness

47. camaraderie

48. care

49. carefulness

50. caring

51. caritas

52. caution

53. charge

54. charitableness

55. charities

56. charity

57. clemency

58. close relation

59. collaboration

60. comfort

61. comforting

62. commiserate

63. commiseration

64. commiserations

65. communion

66. compassionate

67. compassionate care

68. compassionate person

69. compassionately

70. compassionateness

71. compassions

72. complaisance

73. comprehension

74. compunction

75. concern

76. concession

77. concord

78. condolence

79. condolences

80. connection

81. considerateness

82. consideration

83. considerations

84. consolation

85. consolations

86. consoling

87. consultation

88. cooperation

89. cordiality

90. counsel

91. counseling

92. counselling

93. counsels

94. courtesy

95. data

96. de grâce

97. decency

98. dedication

99. delicacy

100. devoted

101. devotion

102. direction

103. directions

104. discretion

105. easiness

106. easygoingness

107. emotional support

108. empathise

109. empathize

110. empathy

111. encouragement

112. endurance

113. enjoinders

114. enlightenment

115. enthusiasm

116. excellence

117. excuse

118. facts

119. fair treatment

120. favor

121. favour

122. feel bad

123. feel sorry

124. feel sympathy

125. feeling

126. feeling pity

127. feeling sorry

128. feelings

129. fellow feeling

130. fellow-feeling

131. forbearance

132. forbearing

133. forethought

134. forgiveness

135. fraternal feeling

136. fraternity

137. free-handedness

138. freeness

139. frictionlessness

140. friendliness

141. friendship

142. generosity

143. generousness

144. geniality

145. gentleness

146. godliness

147. good intention

148. good will

149. good-heartedness

150. goodheartedness

151. goodness

152. goodness of heart

153. goodwill

154. grace

155. gracious

156. graciousness

157. great understanding

158. greatheartedness

159. greatness

160. guidance

161. guidelines

162. harmony

163. have compassion

164. have mercy

165. have sympathy

166. heart

167. heart goes

168. heart goes out

169. heart is going

170. heart is gonna

171. heart of gold

172. hearts

173. heartstrings

174. help

175. helpfulness

176. hints

177. hospitableness

178. hospitality

179. human kindness

180. humane

181. humane manner

182. humaneness

183. humanitarianism

184. humanities

185. humanity

186. humanness

187. ideas

188. identification

189. indulgence

190. indulgences

191. info

192. information

193. input

194. inside story

195. insight

196. instruction

197. intimation

198. judgement

199. kid gloves

200. kind-heartedness

201. kindheartedness

202. kindliness

203. kindly disposition

204. kindness

205. kindnesses

206. kwannon

207. la merced

208. lament

209. largeheartedness

210. largess

211. lavishness

212. laxness

213. leaning

214. lenience

215. leniency

216. lenientness

217. lenity

218. lessons

219. liberalism

220. liberality

221. liberalness

222. license

223. life

224. lifesaver

225. liking

226. listening

227. literary bounty

228. lord have mercy

229. love

230. loving kindness

231. lovingkindness

232. low-down

233. magnanimity

234. may turn

235. mercies

236. merciful

237. mercifulness

238. mercy

239. mercy killing

240. mildness

241. mile

242. mile-long

243. misericordia

244. mitigation

245. moderateness

246. moderation

247. most beneficent

248. motherliness

249. munificence

250. mutual attraction

251. mutual fondness

252. mutual understanding

253. neighborliness

254. niceness

255. nobility

256. open-handedness

257. open-heartedness

258. openhandedness

259. opinions

260. owing

261. pardon

262. pathos

263. patience

264. penitence

265. permission

266. permissiveness

267. philanthropy

268. piedad

269. pietà

270. pietism

271. piety

272. piousness

273. piteous

274. pitiful

275. pity

276. pity of it

277. pity party

278. pitying

279. pleasant relationship

280. please

281. pliability

282. pointers

283. prescription

284. prescriptions

285. proposals

286. proposition

287. propositions

288. prudence

289. psychoanalysis

290. psychotherapy

291. public spirit

292. public-spiritedness

293. quarter

294. quarters

295. rahma

296. rapport

297. reassurance

298. recognition

299. recommendation

300. recommendations

301. reconciliation

302. regard

303. regret

304. rehabilitation

305. relent

306. relief

307. remission

308. remorse

309. respect

310. respects

311. responsiveness

312. result

313. riders

314. rue

315. ruth

316. sadden

317. sadness

318. self pity

319. self-denial

320. self-pity

321. self-sacrifice

322. selflessness

323. sensibility

324. sensitive

325. sensitiveness

326. sensitivity

327. sentiment

328. serviceability

329. shame

330. shared feeling

331. show compassion

332. show pity

333. social conscience

334. soft-heartedness

335. softheartedness

336. softness

337. solace

338. solacing

339. solicitousness

340. solicitude

341. solidarity

342. sorrow

343. sorry

344. soul

345. soul of kindness

346. spare

347. steadfast love

348. submission

349. sufferance

350. suggestion

351. suggestions

352. support

353. susceptibility

354. sweetness

355. sympathetic

356. sympathetic chord

357. sympathetic reaction

358. sympathetic response

359. sympathies

360. sympathise

361. sympathize

362. sympathized

363. sympathizing with

364. sympathy

365. sympathy strike

366. sympathy to

367. tact

368. take pity

369. takes pity

370. teaching

371. teachings

372. tender feeling

373. tender mercies

374. tender-heartedness

375. tenderheartedness

376. tenderness

377. thank you

378. thanks

379. therapy

380. thought

381. thoughtfulness

382. thoughts go

383. through

384. tip-offs

385. tips

386. tolerance

387. toleration

388. tranquillity

389. treatment

390. two cents' worth

391. understanding

392. unexcitability

393. unfailing love

394. unfortunate

395. union

396. unity

397. unselfishness

398. views

399. vulnerable

400. warm feelings

401. warm-hearted relationship

402. warm-heartedness

403. warmheartedness

404. warmth

405. warmth of heart

406. warning

407. well

408. whole-spiritedness

409. word to the wise

410. yearning

411. your compassion

412. zeal

413. zest

Most folks value compassion and agree that it's important both in our own lives also as in society more generally. Undeniably, compassion is additionally a part of our everyday experience of being human. We love and look after our children; confronted with a person in pain, we instinctively pity them; when someone reaches out and touches us during a season of pain we feel connected. Most folks would also wholeheartedly agree that compassion has something to try to integrate with the essence of what it means to steer an honest life. So it’s no small coincidence that compassion seems to be the footing where the moral teachings of all major traditions, religious and humanistic, begin and end.

Even within the contested political sphere, compassion is one value that each side of the range or spectrum is wanting to claim. Even though we have widely shared beliefs and experiences about compassion, we fail to offer it a central role in our lives and in our society. In our contemporary culture, we tend to possess a rather confusing relationship with values like kindness and compassion.

In the secular West, we sometimes lack a consistent cultural framework for articulating what compassion is and the way it works. To some people, it’s a matter of faith and morality, a personal concern of each individual with little or no societal relevance. Others question the very possibility of selflessness for humans and are very suspicious of sentiments like compassion that produce other people’s welfare because of the primary concern. As scientist Michael Ghiselin once remarked, “Scratch an altruist and watch a hypocrite bleed.”

At the opposite extreme, some folks elevate these qualities to such heights that they're way out of the reach for many folks, possible just for rare individuals like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King jr., Dorthey Day, Gandhi, and Thich Nhat Hanh. With this view, compassion becomes something that is admired from a distance in great and exalted beings, but not relevant or practical to our everyday lives.

Broadly defined, compassion may be a sense of concern that arises once we are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to ascertain that suffering relieved. The English word for compassion, comes from its Latin root, literally meaning ‘to suffer with’. Consistent with what religious historian and ex-nun Karen Armstrong has defined, the word for compassion as found in Semitic languages (rahamanut in Hebrew and in Arabic: rahman) is etymologically associated with the word for womb, evoking the mother’s love for her child as a prototypical expression of our compassion. At its core, compassion may be a reaction to the inevitable reality of our human condition—our experience of pain and sorrow.

Compassion offers the likelihood of responding to suffering with understanding, kindness, and patience, instead of, fear and repulsion. As such, compassion lets us open ourselves to the truth of suffering and to seek its alleviation. Compassion is what connects the sensation of empathy to acts of generosity, kindness, and other expressions of our altruistic tendencies.

When compassion arises in us within the face of need or suffering, three things happen almost instantaneously: 

1. We perceive the other’s suffering or need.

2. We emotionally connect with the need or suffering.

3. We respond instinctively by wishing to ascertain that situation relieved. 

Compassion may cause action; it's a readiness to assist or to require to try something ourselves about another person’s situation. Today, scientists are starting to map the neurobiological basis of compassion and explore its deep evolutionary roots.

As a society, we've long ignored the elemental role our compassion instinct plays in defining our nature and behavior. we've bought into a well-liked narrative that seeks to elucidate all our behavior through the prism of competition and self-interest.

This is the story we've been telling about ourselves.

The thing is, a few stories like this, often tend to be self-fulfilling. When our story says that we are at the bottom selfish and aggressive creatures, we assume that each man is for himself. during this ‘dog eat dog world.’ It's only logical, then, to ascertain others as a source of rivalry and antagonism. We then relate to others with apprehension, fear, and suspicion, rather than with sympathy and a way of connection. In sharp contrast to this, if our story says that we are social creatures endowed with instincts for compassion and kindness, which as deeply interdependent beings our welfare is intertwined, this totally changes the way we view – and behave in – the planet. therefore the stories we tell about ourselves do matter, quite profoundly so.