乱

亂
luàn
adjective HSK 4 #928

Meanings

  1. 1 messy
  2. 2 disorderly
  3. 3 chaotic

Examples

HSK 1
Nǐ de fángjiān tài luàn le.
Your room is too messy.
HSK 3
Wǒ de xīnlǐ hěn luàn.
My mind is in a mess.
HSK 4
Búyào luàn diū lājī.
Don't throw trash everywhere.

Tips

grammar
乱 before a verb means 'recklessly/randomly': 乱说 (say nonsense), 乱跑 (run around), 乱花钱 (spend money carelessly).

Components

radical
乚 yǐ
second heavenly stem (radical form)
Right indexing radical 乚 - a single curved hook, the variant form of 乙. In the traditional 亂 it was a hand 又 reaching in to sort the tangle; the simplification collapsed the hand into this hook. Today it just marks the entry under Kangxi #5 (乙) without contributing a clear meaning.
semantic
舌 shé
tongue (here graphic)
Left 舌 - graphic residue from the simplification of 亂. The traditional form had a tangled-thread component on the left depicting hands trying to unravel knotted silk; the 1956 reform replaced it with the visually similar 舌 (tongue). Treat as a graphic substitute, not a true tongue-meaning.

Stroke Order

乱 luàn