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), 左 (phonetic) and ⺼ (structural). 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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. lazy

Etymology & Origin

惰

pictophoneticmind

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

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adjectivelǎn duòidle
惰性nounduò xìnginert (chemistry)
惰性气体nounduò xìng qì tǐ(chemistry) inert gas (esp. a noble 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adjectivedài 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
0.727552 co-occurrences
怠dài
0.716738 co-occurrences
氛fēn
0.43584 co-occurrences
骄jiāo
0.42930 co-occurrences
婪lán
0.42422 co-occurrences
气qì
0.423420 co-occurrences
懈xiè
0.39818 co-occurrences
性xìng
0.3972,381 co-occurrences
勤qín
0.36798 co-occurrences
溶róng
0.35252 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.

少数派Jul 2026

虽然现在哪里都能租到充电宝,但真到出门的时候,还是经常因为懒惰或者抠门而没有及时租。

suī rán xiàn zài nǎ lǐ dōu néng zū dào chōng diàn bǎo , dàn zhēn dào chū mén de shí hòu , hái shì jīng cháng yīn wéi lǎn duò huò zhě kōu mén ér méi yǒu jí shí zū .

Although you can rent power banks just about anywhere these days, when it actually comes time to head out, I often end up not renting one in time because I’m too lazy or too cheap.

奇客SolidotJul 2026

这些气体具有化学惰性,是追溯太阳风注入过程和后期改造的忠实示踪剂。

zhè xiē qì tǐ jù yǒu huà xué duò xìng , shì zhuī sù tài yáng fēng zhù rù guò chéng hé hòu qī gǎi zào de zhōng shí shì zōng jì .

These gases are chemically inert and serve as reliable tracers for tracing the solar wind injection process and subsequent modification.

少数派Jul 2026

耳罩依然是惰性稍高的材料,对于眼镜的兼容性出色,软而贴合,不必担心漏气问题。

ěr zhào yī rán shì duò xìng shāo gāo de cái liào , duì yú yǎn jìng de jiān róng xìng chū sè , ruǎn ér tiē gě , bù bì dān xīn lòu qì wèn tí .

The ear cushions are still made of a slightly more inert material, offering excellent compatibility with eyeglasses; they are soft and form a snug fit, so there's no need to worry about air leaks.

奇客SolidotJun 2026

科学家发现小行星上的惰性元素比例与地球也存在差异。

kē xué jiā fā xiàn xiǎo háng xīng shàng de duò xìng yuán sù bǐ lì yǔ dì qiú yě cún zài chā yì .

Scientists have discovered that the proportion of inert elements on asteroids also differs from that on Earth.

IT之家May 2026

它照出了我们在新技术面前的懒惰,也指明了通往强者的道路。

tā zhào chū le wǒ men zài xīn jì shù miàn qián de lǎn duò , yě zhǐ míng le tōng wǎng qiáng zhě de dào lù .

It highlights our laziness in the face of new technology, and also points the way to becoming stronger.

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.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 忄 (mind) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced 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), 左 (phonetic), ⺼ (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, "(chemistry) inert gas (esp. a noble 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), 夺 (to seize), 躲 (to hide), 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.

Practice writing 惰 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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.