Definition
恍如隔世 is a four-character idiom (chengyu) meaning 'as if a whole lifetime has passed' — it describes the feeling that things have changed so drastically that the past feels like another life. You use it when revisiting a place after many years, or when a major life shift makes earlier times seem distant and surreal. The literal breakdown is 恍 ('as if'), 如 ('like'), 隔 ('separated by'), 世 ('generation/lifetime').
idiom
as if a lifetime has passeda feeling of drastic change making the past seem like another world
Examples
- ，恍如隔世。Huí dào xiǎo shíhou zhù de dìfang, zhēn yǒu huǎng rú gé shì zhī gǎn.Returning to the place where I lived as a child, I truly felt as if a lifetime had passed.
- ，，恍如隔世。Shí nián hòu zài jiàn, yíqiè biànhuà tài dà, ràng rén huǎng rú gé shì.Meeting again after ten years, everything had changed so much it felt like another life.
- ，恍如隔世。Fān kàn lǎo zhàopiàn, tā yǒu yì zhǒng huǎng rú gé shì de gǎnjué.Looking through old photos, he had a feeling that a whole lifetime had passed.
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