sympathetic vs understanding

sympathetic

adj
  • Of, related to, feeling, showing, or characterized by sympathy. 

  • A supernatural connection or power resulting from two items having the same form or some other correspondence. 

  • Designed in a sensitive or appropriate way. 

  • Relating to musical tones produced by sympathetic vibration or to strings so tuned as to sound by sympathetic vibration. 

  • Showing approval of or favor towards an idea or action. 

  • Relating to or denoting the part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves arising from ganglia near the middle part of the spinal cord, supplying the internal organs, blood vessels, and glands, and balancing the action of the parasympathetic nerves. 

  • Relating to, producing, or denoting an effect which arises through an affinity, interdependence, or mutual association. 

  • Attracting the liking of others. 

understanding

adj
  • Showing compassion, tolerance, and forbearance. 

noun
  • Opinion, judgement or outlook. 

  • An informal contract; mutual agreement. 

  • A reconciliation of differences. 

  • The act of one that understands or comprehends; comprehension; knowledge; discernment. 

  • Sympathy. 

  • Reason or intelligence, ability to grasp the full meaning of knowledge, ability to infer. 

How often have the words sympathetic and understanding occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )