Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is a malignancy of keratinocyte‐derived skin tumor, which is regarded as the second most common skin cancer worldwide. Accumulating evidence has established that microRNAs (miRNAs) can play a critical role in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis including cSCC. Abnormal expression of hsa‐miR‐142‐5p has been elaborated in various tumors. Nevertheless, its expression and function in the development of cSCC remain unclear. In our study, we found that the expression of hsa‐miR‐142‐5p in cSCC cells were greatly overexpressed compared to human benign epidermal keratinocyte cells. Moreover, inhibited hsa‐miR‐142‐5p can repress cSCC cell growth and induce apoptosis while upregulated hsa‐miR‐142‐5p exhibited a reverse phenomenon. Recently, cancer stem cells (CSCs) which possess the ability of self‐renewal and proliferation and are able to produce cancer cells have been widely reported. However, the correlation between hsa‐miR‐142‐5p and CSCs in cSCC is still unknown. Interestingly, we observed that overexpressing hsa‐miR‐142‐5p can induce CSC‐like properties in cSCC via activating Wnt signaling. In addition, the luciferase reporter assay data and bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that hsa‐miR‐142‐5p can target the 3′UTR of PTEN mRNA. Taken these together, we draw a conclusion that hsa‐miR‐142‐5p can trigger cancer stem cell‐like properties of cSCC through inhibition of PTEN. Our findings may provide hsa‐miR‐142‐5p as a new therapeutic target for cSCC.