shengnan

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noun

A man who has for an extended amount of time been unable to find a romantic, interpersonal or physically intimate relationship.

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Meanings

nounshengnan (uncountable)
  1. ChinauncountableA man who has for an extended amount of time been unable to find a romantic, interpersonal or physically intimate relationship.

    These men have their own unflattering nickname — shengnan, or "leftover men."

    2015 September 2, Venus Wong, “Inside China's Open-Air Marriage Market For "Leftover Women"”, in Refinery29, retrieved 29 Oct 2019
    1 more example

    The marriage candidates on offer in the parks, she discovered, were often a mismatch of shengnu ("leftover women") and shengnan ("leftover men"), two groups from opposite ends of the social scale.

    2013 March 9, Brook Larmer, “The Price of Marriage in China”, in New York Times

Origin

From Mandarin 剩男 (shèngnán).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

shengnan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shengnan

MLA

“shengnan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shengnan. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shengnan,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shengnan.

Source: shengnan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.