Word.ws English Dictionary

shanzhai

/ʃɑːnˈd͡ʒaɪ/

shanzhai noun: the imitation and trademark infringing of brands and goods of usually poor quality, particularly electronics made in China.

Noun

shanzhai (uncountable)

  1. The imitation and trademark infringing of brands and goods of usually poor quality, particularly electronics made in China.
    • Many “shanzhai” goods sport altered names, trying to tread a fine line between imitation and straight-out fake, and cost much less than their above-board, well-known brand-name equivalents.[…]
    • The brazenness of the imitations has added to their attraction. Beijing’s electronics markets enjoy a roaring trade in “shanzhai” goods.2009 February 6, Tyra Dempster, Ben Blanchard, “"Sham glam" sweeps China as fakes get trendy”, in Miral Fahmy, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2023, Lifestyle

shanzhai meaning in Hindi, Tagalog, Arabic and Vietnamese

shanzhai in Hindi

imitation and trademark infringing brands and goods
चीन माल cīn māl, चाइना माल chāinā māl

shanzhai in Tagalog

imitation and trademark infringing brands and goods
pandarambong, palsipikasyon, huwad, imitasyon

shanzhai in Arabic

imitation and trademark infringing brands and goods
مُقَلَّدٌ muqalladun, تَقْلِيدٌ taqlīdun, بِضَاعَةٌ مَغْشُوشَةٌ biḍāʕatun maḡšūšatun, بِضَاعَةُ تَقْلِيدٍ biḍāʕatu taqlīdin, مَضْرُوبٌ maḍrūbun

shanzhai in Vietnamese

imitation and trademark infringing brands and goods
sự giả mạo, nghề ăn cướp

Origin of shanzhai

First use appears c. 2000s, from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 山寨 (shānzhài), literally mountain fort, suggesting a lair of bandits or counterfeiters.

Questions about shanzhai

What does shanzhai mean?
Shanzhai means the imitation and trademark infringing of brands and goods of usually poor quality, particularly electronics made in China.
What is shanzhai in Hindi?
Shanzhai in Hindi is चीन माल (cīn māl), चाइना माल (chāinā māl). See Shanzhai meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is shanzhai?
Shanzhai is a noun.
How do you pronounce shanzhai?
Shanzhai is pronounced /ʃɑːnˈd͡ʒaɪ/.

Words near shanzhai in the dictionary

  1. Shanwei
  2. Shanxi
  3. Shanyang
  4. shanyavskite
  5. Shanyin
  6. shanzhai
  7. shanzhiside
  8. Shanzhou
  9. Shao
  10. Shao-hsing
  11. Shao-kuan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shanzhai (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “shanzhai.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shanzhai. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.