yang
noun
(in Chinese philosophy and religion) the positive, bright, and masculine principle, the counterpart of yin.
Jump To:
yang
American
[yahng, yang]
/ jɑŋ, jæŋ /
noun
Yang
1
British
/ jæŋ /
noun
Yang
2
British
/ jæŋ /
noun
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.
Explanation
Yang is the masculine, positive principle in Chinese philosophy. It’s associated with heaven and activity. Have you balanced your yin and yang? In Chinese philosophy, these two qualities or principles, which exist in everyone, represent femaleness (yin) and maleness (yang). Achieving a balance between the two is considered important for having a happy, healthy life. Yang has to do with maleness as well as heaven, light, activity, and warmth. The black and white symbol of yin and yang represents how they complete a whole. Yin and yang are almost always discussed together.
Vocabulary lists containing yang
Chinese History - Introductory
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Chinese History - Middle School and High School
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Chapters 3–4
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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.
See Examples For:
Guy and Bruno constitute the two halves of a single personality, the yin and the yang, the superego and the id.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
"We are quite different people - very much yin and yang - but I think decisions are better made with two brains rather than one as it stops hubris," says Begg, who is London-based.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026
There is a yin and yang to that.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2025
Seattle quarterback Geno Smith embodied the yin and yang of this wild game, throwing three beautiful touchdown passes but offsetting those with three interceptions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2024
They are equal and opposite, yin and yang.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Yang, 91, lives on the outskirts of China's bustling capital Beijing.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
FakeHaul founder Jack Yang said he built the app for someone he knows who struggled with impulse shopping.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Yang and his colleagues are now investigating whether a tightly focused laser can switch the material between this quantum many-body phase and other phases.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026
Yang Lu of Tapestry told me people are adopting agentic commerce much more slowly than other AI consumer tools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
I began to see that this war was going to mean more than just talk, but at first I didn’t connect Yang Sze- Fu’s fingernails with the war.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
