药食同源 — Chinese idiom

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.