Shan
Americannoun
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Shans,
plural
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Shan
plural
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a group of Mongoloid tribes in the hills of Myanmar (Burma).
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a language spoken in the Shan States and belonging to the Tai group of languages.
noun
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a member of a Mongoloid people living in Myanmar, Thailand, and SW China
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the language or group of dialects spoken by the Shan, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family and closely related to Thai
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
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
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
William Shan worked for a supplier in China that sold material to Ms Hansen's company - until, he said, the payments stopped.
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025
But there was a muted celebratory air as teams loaded candles and fireworks onto the homemade airships, part of the annual Tazaungdaing hot air balloon festival in northern Shan state's Taunggyi city.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2025
Shan said, hugging the muscular dark man in a fedora.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Throne of God is a vast mountain of the Tien Shans in Central Asia where Russia gnaws into China.
From Time Magazine Archive
The hillsides were black with them: Chinese, Shans, Kachins.
From Time Magazine Archive
Last week in London the Burmans pointed to the west, north, and east borders of British Burma and claimed the country where the Chins, Shans, Kachins, Nagas, Was, and some Karens lived.
From Time Magazine Archive
I did not see the manner in which they work, or the tools they employ, all the Shans having left for Kamein, as the season had already been over for some days.
From Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries by William Griffith
The back blocks of China; a narrative of experiences among the Chinese, Sifans, Lolos, Tibetans, Shans and Kachins, between Shanghai and the Irrawadi.
From Select List of Books ... Relating to the Far East by Appleton Prentiss Clark Griffin
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.
