药食同源 — Chinese idiom
药食同源
yào shí tóng yuán
Traditional: 藥食同源
Meaning
- lit. food and medicine come from the same source
- fig. there is no clear-cut distinction between food and medicine
Character by character
- 药yàodrugs, medicine; the leaf of the Dahurian angelica
- 食shífood; to eat
- 同tóngsame, similar; together with, alike
- 源yuánspring; source, root, head; surname
Idioms sharing a character
- 对症下药 duì zhèng xià yào
- 无可救药 wú kě jiù yào
- 良药苦口 liáng yào kǔ kǒu
- 药到病除 yào dào bìng chú
- 药石无灵 yào shí wú líng
- 灵丹妙药 líng dān miào yào
- 三旬九食 sān xún jiǔ shí
- 因噎废食 yīn yē fèi shí
- 宵衣旰食 xiāo yī gàn shí
- 寝食难安 qǐn shí nán ān
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.