どころか

どころか
particle
far from; on the contrary; let alone
grammatical
1. far from ~; on the contrary; not only not ~
Denies the preceding statement and replaces it with something at the opposite extreme: not merely "not X" but in fact the reverse. Attaches to plain-form verbs and adjectives and to bare nouns.
(さむ)どころか、(あつ)くらいだ。
Far from being cold, it's almost hot.
Far from apologizing, he got angry.
I took the medicine, but far from getting better, my fever went even higher.
2. let alone ~; to say nothing of ~
Used with a negative predicate to say that even a modest case does not hold, so a greater one certainly does not. The item after どころか is the smaller or easier case.
漢字(かんじ)どころか、ひらがな()めない
Let alone kanji, I can't even read hiragana.
To say nothing of a trip abroad, I don't even have time to visit a nearby hot spring.
I was so busy that, let alone lunch, I didn't even have time to drink water.

Connection

Usage

Sense 1 corrects an expectation and is usually followed by a stronger positive statement; sense 2 leads to a negative predicate such as ない or できない. The reversal is often reinforced by むしろ or さえ.

Similar words

  • もちろん: to say nothing of ~ — adds a case to an affirmative statement, whereas どころか denies
  • ではなく: not ~ but — a plain correction, without the sense of overturning an expectation
  • おろか: let alone (literary) — close to sense 2 but distinctly formal