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• yang
  yang

  noun

  (in Chinese philosophy and religion) the positive, bright, and masculine principle, the counterpart of yin.
• Yang
  Yang

  noun

  See Yin and Yang

yang

American  

[yahng, yang] / jɑŋ, jæŋ /

noun

1. (in Chinese philosophy and religion) the positive, bright, and masculine principle, the counterpart of yin.

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Yang ¹ British  

/ jæŋ /

noun

1. See Yin and Yang

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Yang ² British  

/ jæŋ /

noun

1. 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)

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yang Yang

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

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

She described the two disparate beats as a way of staying balanced, her yin and yang.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 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

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

The world-building of the Cat’s unique workplace is fantastically colorful and wild, and the voice cast, from Matt Berry to Bowen Yang, delivers fresh and funny performances.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

Other notable audience members, including Madonna and Michelle Obama, followed, while actors such as Maya Rudolph, Bowen Yang and Tituss Burgess signed up to don Mary’s ringlet wig as the Broadway run stretched on.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026

“We see insufficient upside to justify the premium,” Yang wrote in an investor note, adding that Apple needs to boost iPhone sales growth and turn around its slowing services business to make him more bullish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Yang He, a former Ph.D. student at Shandong University who developed the analysis framework and now studies oxygen collisions at the LHC, described how the team used different collision types to identify energy loss.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026

Sometimes Ralph thought of her as Yang Guifei incarnate — that’s a Tang Dynasty courtesan for whom an emperor went to ruin.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

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