yin and yang

4 synonyms for yin and yang, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — In Chinese philosophy, the two complementary forces held to make up everything in the universe: yin, the dark, cool, passive, receptive principle, and yang, the bright, warm, active, assertive one, each containing a trace of the other and constantly turning into it.

Synonyms

Everyday swaps

Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.

balance

Less common

Still standard English, but they carry more weight.

complement

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

counterpoint opposites

How to use yin and yang

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

balance of yin and yang yin and yang symbol yin energy yang energy

The philosophical sense is neutral; the figurative "they're the yin and yang of the office" sense is everyday English. The symbol is properly called the taijitu.

Etymology

From Chinese yin, the shaded northern side of a hill, and yang, its sunlit southern side.

Full origin of yin and yang →

Frequently asked questions

Which side is yin and which is yang?

Yin is the dark half and yang is the light half. Yin is associated with cold, night, stillness, water and the feminine; yang with heat, day, movement, fire and the masculine. Each half carries a dot of the other colour to show that neither exists in a pure state.

What do the dots in the yin and yang symbol mean?

They show that each force contains the seed of its opposite and will eventually turn into it. Nothing is wholly yin or wholly yang, and the two are always in the process of exchanging.

Is yin and yang about good and evil?

No. Neither force is good or bad; they are complementary rather than opposed in a moral sense. Harm is understood to come from imbalance between them, not from one of them being wicked.

People also searched

balance complement counterpoint

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