懒

懶
lǎn
adjective HSK 4 #6,350

Meanings

  1. 1 lazy; idle
  2. 2 sluggish; listless

Examples

HSK 1
Tā tài lǎn le, shénme dōu bù xiǎng zuò.
He's too lazy and doesn't want to do anything.
HSK 3
Zhōumò wǒ xiǎng lǎn zài jiā lǐ bù chūmén.
On weekends I want to laze around at home and not go out.
HSK 6
Bié tōulǎn!
Don't be lazy! / Don't slack off!

Tips

usage
偷懒 (tōu lǎn) means 'to slack off / to be lazy on the sly.' 懒得 (lǎn de) + verb means 'too lazy to do something': 我懒得出去 (I'm too lazy to go out).

Components

radical
忄 xīn
heart (left-form)
Left-side heart radical, the vertical form of 心 used along the left edge. It marks 懒 as a feeling or mental state - laziness as an inner disposition, an aversion to effort. Same family includes 怕 (fear), 快 (joy), 慢 (slow-tempered), 怀 (cherish), 慌 (panic) - the inner-life vocabulary.
phonetic
赖 lài
to rely on; deny
Right 赖 supplies the sound - lài to lǎn, with regular -ài/-ǎn rime variation in this series. 赖 also lends a faint semantic flavour: someone who shirks work and 'depends on' others fits the 'lazy' meaning well. The phonetic alone connects 懒 to 籁 (sound), 獭 (otter).

Stroke Order

懒 lǎn