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On this sites I find both of the usage:

https://ludwig.guru/s/sympathy+toward

https://ludwig.guru/s/sympathy+towards

What is the proper choice of preposition here after "sympathy"?

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Both are common and natural.

According to this Ngram view on "sympathy towards someone" vs "sympathy toward someone", "towards" is more popular, which agrees with my own feelings.

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  • I agree with your feelings. I also see that "sympathy for someone" is used 60x times more than "sympathy towards someone": books.google.com/ngrams/… Are they the same meaning/usage or not?
    – High GPA
    Jul 5 at 23:11
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    @HighGPA Same meaning, and both are natural. Usually a 60x difference means the lower one is strongly dispreferred, but that's not my feeling. "Toward" is certainly more formal than "for", but I don't think that accounts for the difference.
    – gotube ♦
    Jul 6 at 5:29

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