yang
Americannoun
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(in Chinese philosophy and religion) the positive, bright, and masculine principle, the counterpart of yin.
noun
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See Yin and Yang
noun
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Chen Ning (ˈtʃɛn ˈnɪŋ). born 1922, US physicist, born in China: with Tsung-Dao Lee, he disproved the physical principle known as the conservation of parity and shared the Nobel prize for physics (1957)
Usage
What else does yang mean? Yang is a common Chinese surname.It also refers to a cosmic force present in ancient Chinese philosophy, typically associated with masculinity, sunlight, and the color white.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a bit of a yin and yang, but there’s something about the traumatic and the sublime that’s connected in the world.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2026
The source said the deputy should be the "yin to the yang" of No 10.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2025
There is a yin and yang to that.
From Salon • Mar. 25, 2025
We grow up to discover there are names in every culture for that — yin and yang, the Apollonian and Dionysian, Vishnu and Shiva, thesis and antithesis, the law of contraries, the dialectic.
From New York Times • Feb. 12, 2024
With imagined tragedy hovering over us, we became inseparable, two halves creating the whole: yin and yang.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.