懒
lǎn · HSK 6
lazy
🦥 lǎn sounds like lawn — too lazy to mow it
忄(heart) + 赖 (rely on): a heart that just wants to rely on others. The overgrown lawn from the pun seals the link to the sound.
懒 — heart radical 忄 + 賴/赖 (rely)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the heart radical 忄 signals an emotion or mental state, while 賴 (lài, 'to rely on') supplies the sound. The original idea was a mind that leans on others and avoids effort, which extended to the modern meaning 'lazy'.