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直男

Mandarin · pinyin zhí nán

(slang) heterosexual man
(slang) a "straight" man: direct and literal-minded, practical and unromantic, and often poor at reading emotions or hints

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Characters in this entry

直: zhí · straight, erect, vertical
男: nán · male, man; son; baron; surname

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · zhi2 nan2

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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zik6 naam4

Cantonese word readings for 直男. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

(neologism, slang) heterosexual man; straight man (Classifier: 個／个 m c)
(neologism, slang) man who fails to understand women (Classifier: 個／个 m c)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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