First recorded in 1890–95
Yin is the feminine, negative principle in Chinese philosophy. It’s associated with Earth and passivity. Have you ever heard someone talk about balancing their yin and yang? Those are two contrasting aspects of Chinese philosophy. While yang is male, yin is female. Yin and yang both exist in everyone, which is why balancing them is considered important. Besides being associated with femaleness, yin also involves Earth, darkness, passiveness, and cold. Yin and yang are usually discussed together. The symbol of yin and yang is black and white, representing how the two principles complement each other.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Being supportive and demanding are a yin and yang—children need both from their parents to succeed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
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
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
If Lauren Bell and Linsey Smith are England's tall and short, spin and seam, bowling Yin and Yang, Kemp and Gibson, who were both signed in The Hundred for more than £100,000 are similarly complementary.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
"There's no way solar evaporation alone can match future demand," said Ngai Yin Yip, La Von Duddleson Krumb Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2026
“I personally would not rely on just one measure to say, ‘Oh, I should change my job,’ or ‘I should change my kid’s major,’” said Yin, one of the study’s authors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026
Among the many business people desperate for a resumption of regular traffic is Yin Weile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
“Now read it out loud,” Yin Lan-lan shouted as soon as Aunt Xi-wen finished.
From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang
Pat told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that he enjoys his new nickname of "grandad" from the "young yins" who watch his videos on TikTok.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2023
Betty never telt me, an' I never asked; but wi' us yins doon here it's nae wark, nae pey.
From Betty Grier by Waugh, Joseph Laing
Do ye mind the game the wee yins play, of noughts and crosses?
From Between You and Me by Lauder, Harry, Sir
Then bywhiles, atween the spells o' the questions, some o' the young yins fell a-talkin', for even Auld Anton canna haud the tongues o' the young birkies.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
Did it no' occur to ye then that there ought to be some sort of dispensation to look after the auld yins who were past it?
From The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays by Leonard, Sterling Andrus
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.
