剩男

shèngnán

noun

Meanings

1 leftover man
2 a man still single past the usual marrying age

Characters

Examples

HSK 3

他三十五岁还没结婚，被家里人叫做剩男。

Tā sānshíwǔ suì hái méi jiéhūn, bèi jiālǐrén jiàozuò shèngnán.

He's thirty-five and still unmarried, so his family calls him a "leftover man".

HSK 5

在一些农村地区，男多女少，剩男问题比城市更严重。

Zài yìxiē nóngcūn dìqū, nán duō nǚ shǎo, shèngnán wèntí bǐ chéngshì gèng yánzhòng.

In some rural areas men outnumber women, and the problem of leftover men is worse than in the cities.

Tips

culture

剩男 is the counterpart of 剩女 "leftover woman"; both spread in the late 2000s. 剩女 is aimed at educated urban women and carries more stigma, while 剩男 is used most of rural men left single by a shortage of women. Both can hurt, so use them with care.

Stroke Order

剩 shèng

男 nán