Word.ws English Dictionary

sheng nu

sheng nu noun: a woman in her mid- to late twenties and not yet married, particularly an unmarried successful businesswoman.

Noun

sheng nu (plural sheng nu)

  1. (derogatory) A woman in her mid- to late twenties and not yet married, particularly an unmarried successful businesswoman.
    • The increasing prevalence of shengnü in China has boosted the number of shengnan – leftover men.2010 Schott, Ben (15 March 2010). "Leftover Ladies & 3S Women". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
    • In 2007, the Women’s Federation defined “leftover” women (sheng nu) as unmarried women over the age of 27 and China’s Ministry of Education added the term to its official lexicon.2012, Fincher, Leta Hong (12 October 2012). "OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; China's 'Leftover' Women". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 April 2013

Examples of sheng nu in a sentence

  • In China, the growing ranks of educated unmarried females are referred to as sheng nu, or “left—over women.”2013, Liza Mundy, The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Our Culture, page 211:
  • "I'm definitely a 'sheng nu' (leftover woman).2013, "BE MY KEPT WOMAN - actress asked to 'name her price'", Malaysia Chronicle (Wednesday, July 31, 2013)

Synonyms of sheng nu

Forms of sheng nu

pluralsheng nu
alternative formshengnü
alternative formshengnu
alternative formsheng nü

Origin of sheng nu

Borrowed from Mandarin 剩女 (shèngnǚ, “leftover woman”). Typologically compare Turkish kalık (“residue, leftover; leftover woman, spinster”).

Questions about sheng nu

What does sheng nu mean?
Sheng nu means a woman in her mid- to late twenties and not yet married, particularly an unmarried successful businesswoman.
How do you use sheng nu in a sentence?
In China, the growing ranks of educated unmarried females are referred to as sheng nu, or “left—over women.”
What part of speech is sheng nu?
Sheng nu is a noun.
What is the plural of sheng nu?
The plural of sheng nu is sheng nu.

Words near sheng nu in the dictionary

  1. Sheneman
  2. Shenemans
  3. Shenequa
  4. Shenfield
  5. sheng
  6. sheng nu
  7. sheng nus
  8. sheng nü
  9. Shenga Bjemi
  10. shengnan
  11. shengnu

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sheng nu (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: “sheng nu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sheng_nu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.