Single-grained detrital minerals have been powerful tool for evaluating marine sedimentary provenance due to their advance for weakening the influence of rock types and alteration in the source, transportation and sedimentation on extracting provenance information. In recent years, zircon, garnet, feldspar, pyroxene, amphibole, monazite, and magnetite were used for sedimentary provenance discrimination in marine science. Single-grained mineral major elements and chronology were often utilized to accurately identify geological characteristics and location of source area; nonetheless, trace elements, isotopes and micro-textures were not sufficient So far, the evaluation of marine sedimentary provenance was fragmentary, which could be evaded by multi-mineral techniques. Further, in-depth studies should be conducted to trace the temporal-spatial evolution of source location through zircon monazite, mica and apatite geochronometry, to quantify erosion rates of source rocks and material flux from source and sink through a multi-mineral quantitative model. In this review, single-grained techniques of minerals in marine provenance research were summarized, and prospects are highlighted to carry out better studies on provenance discrimination of marine sediments.