どころか details
far from; not just X but even Y
あの店、安いどころかめちゃくちゃ高かった。
ano mise, yasui dokoro ka mechakucha takakatta.
That place? Far from cheap — it was insanely expensive. casual
あいつ、漢字どころかひらがなも読めないんだよ。
aitsu, kanji dokoro ka hiragana mo yomenai n da yo.
That guy can't read hiragana, never mind kanji. casual
- noun
- na-adjective
Examples
far from X — the follow-up contradicts what X led you to expect, usually reversing its polarity
あの店、安いどころかめちゃくちゃ高かった。
ano mise, yasui dokoro ka mechakucha takakatta.
That place? Far from cheap — it was insanely expensive. casual
彼は謝るどころか、こちらのせいにした。
kare wa ayamaru dokoro ka, kochira no sei ni shita.
Far from apologizing, he pinned it on me. neutral
今回の改定により負担が減るどころか、かえって増えております。
konkai no kaitei ni yori futan ga heru dokoro ka, kaette fuete orimasu.
With this revision the burden has not lightened — if anything it has grown. formal
not just X but even Y — X holds as stated, and the も-marked second item outbids it on the same scale
あいつ、漢字どころかひらがなも読めないんだよ。
aitsu, kanji dokoro ka hiragana mo yomenai n da yo.
That guy can't read hiragana, never mind kanji. casual
あの店は週末どころか、平日も行列ができている。
ano mise wa shuumatsu dokoro ka, heijitsu mo gyouretsu ga dekite iru.
That shop has a queue not just on weekends but on weekdays too. neutral
Formation
{N}どころかattaches to noun{NA-stem}どころかattaches to na-adjectiveplain clause + どころか（動詞・い形は非過去の普通形 — ×遅刻したどころか）attaches to plain clause
Notes
with no such particle どころか is heard as the denial. The clause before it
stays non-past, where ばかりか takes 遅刻したばかりか freely.
Related patterns
Similar
ばかりか keeps the first item true and piles a bigger one on top of it (遅刻したばかりか謝りもしなかった); どころか throws the first item out as far too small or plain wrong (謝るどころか責任を押しつけた) — ばかりか cannot carry a contradiction, どころか cannot carry a plain addition.
Lookalikes
Shared どころ, opposite jobs — どころか is mid-sentence and demands a second item to rate against the first, while どころではない ends the sentence, names nothing further, and simply refuses the action as unthinkable.