Shan
Americannoun
plural
Shans,plural
Shan-
a group of Mongoloid tribes in the hills of Myanmar (Burma).
-
a language spoken in the Shan States and belonging to the Tai group of languages.
noun
-
a member of a Mongoloid people living in Myanmar, Thailand, and SW China
-
the language or group of dialects spoken by the Shan, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family and closely related to Thai
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Shan joined the Journal from the Los Angeles Times, where her beats included energy, retail and the California economy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
The Ming, Bau, Wei and Liu clans have dominated the remote border town of Laukkaing in Myanmar's impoverished Shan state, since 2009.
From BBC • Jan. 29, 2026
ProPublica journalists Nicole Foy, McKenzie Funk, Joanna Shan, Haley Clark and Cengiz Yar gathered videos via Spanish and English social media posts, local press reports and court records.
From Salon • Jan. 14, 2026
AFP journalists joined a military-organised press tour through the smouldering wreckage of two former labs south of the town of Hsipaw in northeastern Shan state.
From Barron's • Jan. 14, 2026
“You’re very pretty,” Ifemelu said, surprising herself, because those were not the words she would have ordinarily said, but she felt already co-opted by Shan; Shan’s compliment had made her strangely happy.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
