惰 (duò): lazy

惰 (duò) is a Chinese character meaning “lazy.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 忄 (semantic). It ranks #2874 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 惰 mind. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 忄 heart12 strokesFrequency #2874忄 semantic

Definitions

  1. lazy

Etymology & Origin

惰

pictophoneticmind

Decomposition: ⿰忄⿱左⺼ (layout: left-right)

Components:忄semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing 惰 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
懒惰lǎn duòidle
惰性duò xìnginert (chemistry)
惰性气体duò xìng qì tǐinert gas
避其锐气，击其惰归bì qí ruì qì , jī qí duò guīavoid the enemy when he is fresh and strike him when he is tired and withdraws (idiom)
游惰yóu duòto laze about without doing anything productive
偷惰tōu duòto skive off work
娇惰jiāo duòpampered and lazy
懈惰xiè duòslack
怠惰dài duòidleness
9
Total compounds
22
As first character
67
As last character
11
As middle character

惰 appears in 9 compound words: 22 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 11 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 惰 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

懒lǎn
0.7341,631 co-occurrences
怠dài
0.7262,214 co-occurrences
性xìng
0.4777,134 co-occurrences
氛fēn
0.441252 co-occurrences
骄jiāo
0.43590 co-occurrences
婪lán
0.43066 co-occurrences
气qì
0.4291,260 co-occurrences
懈xiè
0.40454 co-occurrences
勤qín
0.372294 co-occurrences
溶róng
0.357156 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

懒惰是成功的大敌。

Lǎnduò shì chénggōng de dàdí.

Laziness is the great enemy of success.

Tatoeba

你迟早要后悔懒惰。

Nǐ chízǎo yào hòuhuǐ lǎnduò.

Sooner or later, you will regret your idleness.

Tatoeba

弗雷德是一个懒惰的家伙。

Fúléi dé shì yī gè lǎnduò de jiāhuo.

Fred is a lazy fellow.

Tatoeba

他对懒惰的人很严厉。

Tā duì lǎnduò de rén hěn yánlì.

He is very hard on lazy people.

Tatoeba

他的懒惰是他未来不好的预兆。

Tā de lǎnduò shì tā wèilái bù hǎo de yùzhào.

His laziness boded ill for the future.

Tatoeba

她骂她的儿子懒惰。

Tā mà tā de érzi lǎnduò.

She scolded her son for being lazy.

Tatoeba

汤姆再也不是懒惰的孩子了。

Tāngmǔ zàiyě bù shì lǎnduò de háizi le.

Tom is no longer a lazy child.

Tatoeba

汤姆没有你想象中那么懒惰。

Tāngmǔ méiyǒu nǐ xiǎngxiàng zhōng nàme lǎnduò.

Tom isn't as lazy as you think he is.

Tatoeba

明天，明天，只是不是今天-所有的懒惰的人都这么说。

Míngtiān, míngtiān, zhǐshì bù shì jīntiān - suǒyǒu de lǎnduò de rén dōu zhème shuō.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, just not today - say all lazy people.

Character Family

忄 Radical Family — Characters sharing the heart radical

怖bù惭cán惨cǎn憧chōng悴cuì惮dàn悼dào惦diàn懂dǒng愤fèn

Related Characters

忙máng快kuài怎zěn息xī您nín慢màn必bì忽hū态tài怕pà

Homophones — Characters pronounced duò

多duō哆duō夺duó朵duǒ躲duǒ堕duò舵duò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 惰 (duò) mean in Chinese?
惰 (duò) primarily means "lazy." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2874 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 惰 and 佐?
惰 (duò) and 佐 (zuǒ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 忄 vs 亻 (same 左 component).
How many strokes does 惰 have?
惰 is written with 12 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 惰?
The radical associated with 惰 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 惰?
惰 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), undefined (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄⿱左⺼ with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 惰?
Common words with 惰 include: 懒惰 (lǎn duò, "idle"); 惰性 (duò xìng, "inert (chemistry)"); 惰性气体 (duò xìng qì tǐ, "inert gas"); 避其锐气，击其惰归 (bì qí ruì qì , jī qí duò guī, "avoid the enemy when he is fresh and strike him when he is tired and withdraws (idiom)"); 游惰 (yóu duò, "to laze about without doing anything productive"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惰 (duò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation duò: 多 (many), 哆 (used in 哆嗦), 夺 (to seize), 朵 (flower), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 惰 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 惰 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.