阴差阳错 — Chinese idiom
阴差阳错
yīn chā yáng cuò
Traditional: 陰差陽錯
Meaning
- due to an unexpected turn of events
Character by character
- 阴yīnthe female principle; dark, shaded; hidden, implic
- 差chādifference, gap; almost, nearly; in error; an offi
- 阳yángthe male principle; bright, sunny; clear, lit, ope
- 错cuòerror, mistake; incorrect, wrong
Idioms sharing a character
- 光阴似箭 guāng yīn sì jiàn
- 光阴荏苒 guāng yīn rěn rǎn
- 阴虚火旺 yīn xū huǒ wàng
- 阴谋诡计 yīn móu guǐ jì
- 阴魂不散 yīn hún bù sàn
- 阳奉阴违 yáng fèng yīn wéi
- 一字不差 yī zì bù chà
- 千差万别 qiān chā wàn bié
- 参差不齐 cēn cī bù qí
- 参差错落 cēn cī cuò luò
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.