Shanghainese

adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Inhabitant of Shanghai; person of Shanghainese descent.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to Shanghai.
  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to Shanghai and the surrounding areas like the Lower Yangtze Delta region like parts of the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui

    "The term “Shanghainese” refers to the residents of the city of Shanghai and its surrounding culture area in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ... When asked to identify themselves, the residents of the city readily respond “Shanghaiese,” whose connotations today reflect an attitude of superiority, confidence, and high self-esteem."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A dialect of Wu spoken predominantly in Shanghai.

    "Maybe it was because I was hearing snatches of Shanghainese and other dialects around me in the carirage, but it didn't feel like I was even in China any more."

Synonyms

All synonyms
shanghaier

Example

More examples

"This isn't Mandarin, it's Shanghainese."

Etymology

From Shanghai + -n- + -ese.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.