Cheongsam
//ˈchoŋ-ˌsäm// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A tight-fitting Chinese formal woman's dress, usually brightly coloured, patterned and/or embroidered, with a split at the thigh.
"France Nuyen, and later Nancy Kwan, sexualized the cheongsam. Though people remember Kwan's movie portrayal of Suzie Wong, before her Nuyen earned fame and plaudits playing the prostitute with a heart of gold on Broadway."
- 2 A plain coloured, tight-fitting dress with a short split at the thigh, worn as a school uniform by schoolgirls. Hong-Kong
"[C]otton cheongsams are still the uniform at several colleges and secondary schools."
- 3 A long formal dress-like garment or robe worn by Asian men.
Example
More examples"France Nuyen, and later Nancy Kwan, sexualized the cheongsam. Though people remember Kwan's movie portrayal of Suzie Wong, before her Nuyen earned fame and plaudits playing the prostitute with a heart of gold on Broadway."
Etymology
From Cantonese 長衫／长衫 (coeng4 saam1, “long robe”).
More for "cheongsam"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.