似是而非 — Chinese idiom

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.