懶 / 懒
lan
Lazy in Chinese is 懶 / 懒 (lan), read lǎn in Mandarin. If unsure, use 懶 / 懒. Wiktionary also lists 懶惰 / 懒惰 (lǎnduò).
Meaning: unwilling to work (adj)
Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| 懶 / 懒 | lan |
| 懶惰 / 懒惰 | lǎnduò |
惰性 refers to inertia or a tendency to be lazy, and 懒骨头 literally means lazy bones.
Which one should you use?
懶惰 / 懒惰 (lǎnduò) is the two syllable adjective and sounds more formal. 偷懶 / 偷懒 is a verb meaning to slack off or shirk one's duties, literally to steal laziness.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Cantonese the same character is used, read laan5.
How does it change in a sentence?
As a predicate, 懶 normally takes an adverb such as 很 before it, as in 很懶, to mean someone is lazy.
How do you pronounce it?
It is written lan in Latin letters, and in Mandarin it carries the dipping third tone.
Did you know?
- Chinese culture has a concept called 躺平, or 'lying flat', which describes a modern social trend of rejecting the 'rat race' by doing the bare minimum to survive.
- Unlike the English word 'lazy', which is almost always negative, the phrase 懶洋洋 is often used to describe a pleasant, relaxed feeling, such as a 'lazy' sunny afternoon.
- The word 惰性 is used to describe 'inertia' in physics. This shows how the concept of laziness is abstractly linked to the scientific tendency of an object to resist changes in its state of motion.
Example sentences for Chinese are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “lazy” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
