剩女

shèngnǚ

noun

Meanings

1 leftover woman
2 a woman still single past the age at which she is expected to marry

Characters

Examples

HSK 4

她三十多岁还没结婚，亲戚都说她是剩女。

Tā sānshí duō suì hái méi jiéhūn, qīnqi dōu shuō tā shì shèngnǚ.

She's in her thirties and still unmarried, and her relatives all call her a 'leftover woman'.

HSK 5

她不在乎别人说她是剩女。

Tā búzàihu biéren shuō tā shì shèngnǚ.

She doesn't care if people call her a 'leftover woman'.

Tips

register

A loaded label. It spread through the media in the mid-2000s, and in 2007 the Ministry of Education included it in an official list of new words, but many women find it insulting and it is widely criticized as sexist. Neutral terms are 单身女性 'single woman' and 大龄单身女性 'older single woman'. The male counterpart is 剩男.

Stroke Order

剩 shèng

女 nǚ