yang

Y4A1N1G2
/ˈjæŋ/[ˈjæŋ]Canada, US/ˈjeɪ̯ŋ/Canada, US[ˈjeɪ̯ŋ]

noun

A principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with bright, hot, masculine, etc. elements of the natural world.

Opposite
CommonScrabble 8

Meanings

yang1

nounyang (uncountable)

alternative Yang

  1. uncountablehuman sciencesA principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with bright, hot, masculine, etc. elements of the natural world.

    The performance was unmistakably male and gay. The rousing lion dance that capped their performance provided the right touch of "yang" without destroying the distinct feel of something gay, Asian and new.

    1985 August 17, S. H. Chua, “IGA Smashes Borders”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 10
    1 more example

    "Steamed fish and chicken and vegetable soup and even mushrooms are considered cooling foods, edible materializations of the yang, the pure primal air. The yin, or earth element, inheres in fried dishes and especially in shark's fin soup. Am I right, Mr Lee?"

    1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 187

yang2

nounyang (plural yangs)

plural yangs

  1. The monetary unit of Korea from 1892 to 1902, divided into 100 pun.

yang3

verbyang (third-person singular simple present yangs, present participle yanging, simple past and past participle yanged)

present singular third person yangs · participle present yanging · participle past yanged · past yanged

  1. rareTo make the cry of the wild goose.

    Away they went, the colt in the lead and the pinto after, until they reached the bunch of cottonwoods far up the stream where the yanging wild geese had their nests.

    1902, Eleanor Gates, The biography of a prairie girl
    1 more example

    Last night we were awakened by the barking of dogs and yanging of a goose, and investigated to find that the man had neglected to house the geese and the dogs were killing them.

    1957, Adelbert Ames, Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: 1874-1899
nounyang (plural yangs)

plural yangs

  1. The cry of the wild goose; a honk.

    Hangs is a false word, — a Northern corruption of the negro dialect yang, — an onomatopœian word, representing the "far heard clang" of the wild goose.

    1867, Gail Hamilton, Wool-gathering, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 185

Yang4

proper noun
  1. Chinesehuman sciencesAlternative letter-case form of yang when used as a proper noun.

Yang5

proper noun
  1. A surname from Chinese of various origins.
  2. A surname from Korean of various origins.
  3. A county of Hanzhong, Shaanxi, China.

    A male vegetable seller killed a female hawker in a fight over space at a farmer's market in Yang county, near Hanzhong , Huashang Daily reports.

    2014 October 11, WU NAN, “Breastfed baby gets drunk; Grandpa kills child smuggler”, in South China Morning Post, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2014
    2 more examples

    Liang and Yang were the names of two commanderies to the southwest of Ch'ang-an; Yang is the modern Yang county, Shensi, and Liang, the administrative center of Shan-nan West circuit, also known as Hsing-yuan, on the borders of Shensi and Szechuan.

    1988, Robin D. S. Yates, Washing Silk: The Life and Selected Poetry of Wei Chuang (834?-910), →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 123

    The well-known Hanzhong Basin, extending from Yangxian to Mianxian, about 80 kilometres from east to west and 10 to 15 kilometres from north to south, is a major farming area.

    中国分省地理

    [1992, Shunwu Zhou, “Shaanxi Province”, in China Provincial Geography [中国分省地理], Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 417

Synonyms & antonyms

nounthe bright positive masculine principle in Chinese dualistic cosmology

Opposite

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

yang · noun

From early romanizations of Chinese 陽/阳 (yáng), originally in reference to the sunny side of areas such as mountains and dwellings.

Full word history & related roots →

yang · noun

  1. Korean양(兩)“yang, tael”
  2. Englishyang

From Korean 양(兩) (yang, “yang, tael”). Doublet of liang.

Full word history & related roots →

yang · verb, noun

Imitative.

Full word history & related roots →

Yang · proper noun

From various atonal romanizations of various Chinese characters, including 楊 /杨 (yáng, “Willow”) and 洋 (a river name). Korean origins include 梁 and 楊.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 陽 /阳, 洋縣 /洋县
  • 陽 /阳 (yáng)essential male principle
  • 洋縣 /洋县 (Yángxiàn)county
German Yang
  • Yangessential male principle
Hungarian jang
  • jangessential male principle
Japanese 陽
  • 陽 (yō)essential male principle
Korean 양
  • 양 (yang)essential male principle
Persian یانگ
  • یانگ (yâng)essential male principle
Russian ян
  • ян (jan)essential male principle
Swedish yang
  • yangessential male principle
Ukrainian ян
  • ян (jan)essential male principle
Vietnamese dương
  • dươngessential male principle

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with yang

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

yang. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yang

MLA

“yang.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yang. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “yang,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yang.

Source: yang on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.