似是而非 — Chinese idiom
似是而非
sì shì ér fēi
Meaning
- apparently right but actually wrong; specious
Character by character
- 似sìresembling, similar to; as if, to seem
- 是shìto be; indeed, right, yes; okay
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 非fēinot, negative, non-; to oppose
Idioms sharing a character
- 似水年华 sì shuǐ nián huá
- 似笑非笑 sì xiào fēi xiào
- 侯门似海 hóu mén sì hǎi
- 光阴似箭 guāng yīn sì jiàn
- 大奸似忠 dà jiān sì zhōng
- 如花似玉 rú huā sì yù
- 如金似玉 rú jīn sì yù
- 如饥似渴 rú jī sì kě
- 归心似箭 guī xīn sì jiàn
- 一无是处 yī wú shì chù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.