(shèng): to remain, to be left, to have as remainder

(shèng) is a Chinese character meaning “to remain.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1437 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, knife. Its radical form (knife) appears in many related characters such as (fēn, to divide), (bié, to leave), (dào, to reach).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to remain
  2. to be left
  3. to have as remainder

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticknife

Decomposition: ⿰乘刂 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbshèng yúremainder6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shèng xiàto remain
shèng càileftovers (food)
guò shèngto be excessive
suǒ shèng wú jǐthere is not much left
shèng fànleftover food
cán gēng shèng fànleftovers from a meal
shèng yú jià zhí(economics) surplus value
zhōng guó shèng yú dìng lǐChinese remainder theorem (math.)
shèng yú dìng lǐthe Remainder Theorem
shèng yú fàng shè xìngresidual radioactivity
shèng nǚ(coll.) "leftover woman" – a woman who remains single beyond the typical marrying age
shèng nán(coll.) "leftover man" – a man who remains single beyond the typical marrying age
shèng qiánto have money left
yú shèngsurplus
cán chá shèng fànspoilt tea, leftover food (idiom)
18
Total compounds
67
As first character
11
As last character
22
As middle character

appears in 18 compound words: 67 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 22 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.62339,006 co-occurrences
zhī
0.55948,498 co-occurrences
xià
0.52791,428 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.48710,764 co-occurrences
jìn
0.3923,684 co-occurrences
0.3392,052 co-occurrences
de
0.33790,438 co-occurrences
huò
0.3293,822 co-occurrences
0.329864 co-occurrences
fàn
0.322330 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

cáncháshèngfànHSK 6+

remains of a meal; leftovers; crumbs from the table

phrase
shèngyújiàzhíHSK 5+

surplus value

noun
suǒshèngwújǐHSK 4+

not much is left; little remains

phrase
cángēngshèngfànHSK 6+

remains of a meal; leftovers; crumbs from the table

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

下的食物请放进冰箱里,不要浪费。

Shèng xià de shíwù qǐng fàng jìn bīngxiāng lǐ, bùyào làngfèi.

Please put the remaining food in the refrigerator; don't waste it.

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

...憧憬再通胀 内房消费股看涨 瑞银:产能过改善 反内卷奏效

. . . chōng jǐng zài tōng zhàng nèi fáng xiāo fèi gǔ kàn zhǎng ruì yín : chǎn néng guò shèng gǎi shàn fǎn nèi juǎn zòu xiào

... Looking forward to re-inflation, domestic real estate consumer stocks are bullish UBS: Overcapacity improvement and anti-involution worked

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

公立國中只窮人與8+9?私校門檻曝光 兩派網友掀論...

gōng lì 國 zhōng zhī shèng 窮 rén 與 ? sī jiào 門 檻 pù guāng 兩 pài 網 yǒu xiān 論 . . .

Public middle schools left with only the poor and troublemakers? Private school admission standards revealed, sparking heated debate among two camps of netizens...

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

年节热闹散去43人团圆祖母身影 中国女子感慨:热闹过后难免孤寂

nián jié rè nào sàn qù rén tuán yuán shèng zǔ mǔ shēn yǐng zhōng guó nǚ zǐ gǎn kǎi rè nào guò hòu nán miǎn gū jì

As the festive bustle fades, 43 family members gather, leaving only the grandmother's figure. A Chinese woman reflects: After the excitement, loneliness inevitably sets in.

東森新聞Feb 2026

頭獎2000萬刮刮樂「6幸運兒」 中了直接免開工

頭 獎 萬 guā guā 樂 shèng xìng 運 兒 zhōng le zhí jiē miǎn 開 gōng

Scratch-off Lottery with $20 Million Top Prize: "Only 6 Lucky Winners Left" Winners Get an Immediate Holiday Break

TvbsFeb 2026

過年年菜吃不完!3招簡單清冰箱 菜新吃法一次看

過 nián nián cài chī bù wán ! zhāo 簡 單 qīng bīng xiāng shèng cài xīn chī fǎ yī cì kàn

3 Simple Moves to Clear the Fridge: A Look at New Ways to Eat Leftovers

Tatoeba

下多少块三明治?

Hái shèngxià duōshao kuài sānmíngzhì?

How many sandwiches are there left?

Tatoeba

告诉我,我还下什么?

Gàosu wǒ, wǒ hái shèngxià shénme?

Tell me, what else do I have left?

Tatoeba

由于产量过,卷心菜的价格下降了。

Yóuyú chǎnliàng guòshèng, juǎnxīncài de jiàgé xiàjiàng le.

The price of cabbage fell because of overproduction.

Tatoeba

她瘦得只皮包骨了。

Tā shòu de zhǐ shèng píbāo gǔ le.

She is all skin and bone.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shèng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 剩 (shèng) mean in Chinese?
剩 (shèng) primarily means "to remain." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1437 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 剩 and 右?
剩 (shèng) and 右 (yòu) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 剩 (left) vs 右 (right).
How many strokes does 剩 have?
剩 is written with 12 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 剩?
The radical associated with 剩 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 剩?
剩 is composed of: 乘 (phonetic), 刂 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰乘刂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 剩?
Common words with 剩 include: 剩下 (shèng xià, "to remain"); 剩余 (shèng yú, "remainder"); 剩菜 (shèng cài, "leftovers (food)"); 过剩 (guò shèng, "to be excessive"); 所剩无几 (suǒ shèng wú jǐ, "there is not much left"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 剩 (shèng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shèng: 升 (to ascend), 生 (to be born), 声 (sound), 牲 (domestic animal), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 剩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 剩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.