What is pathos meaning?

Pathos is a term used in rhetoric to describe an emotional appeal that persuades an audience through evoking their emotions such as empathy, sympathy, or sorrow. Pathos aims to establish a connection between the speaker and the audience by moving them emotionally. It often uses language that is emotionally charged to evoke pity, anger, or inspiration. Pathos, along with logos (appeal to logic) and ethos (appeal to credibility), is one of the key elements of persuasive writing and speech. It is commonly used in advertising, politics, and public speaking to elicit an emotional response from the audience. In literature, pathos is used to create sympathy for the characters or the situation and to evoke an emotional response from the readers.