How to Write 婪 (lán) — Meaning “Greedy; avaricious”

Imagine a woman (女) standing in a forest (林) and she is so greedy that she wants to take every tree for herself. The image of someone wanting all the trees in the forest helps you recall that 婪 means 'greedy.'

Write the top part 林 first: two horizontal strokes for each 木, then the vertical strokes, and finally the left and right dots. The bottom 女 must be slightly wider than the top, and its horizontal stroke should cross the entire character to balance it. A common mistake is making the top 林 too tall or the bottom 女 too narrow, which ruins the proportion.

While 婪 (lán) means 'greedy,' 姘 (pīn) means 'to have an illicit relationship' and 姚 (yáo) is a surname or can mean 'beautiful.' Visually, 婪 has a forest (林) on top, whereas 姘 has 并 (bìng, together) and 姚 has 兆 (zhào, omen) – these different top parts change the meaning completely. You can remember that 婪’s top looks like many trees, hinting at wanting more.

婪 is almost always used in the compound word 贪婪 (tān lán), meaning 'greedy' or 'avaricious.' It appears in formal writing or discussions about corruption, excessive desire, or negative traits, but is rarely used alone. The character carries a strong negative connotation and is avoided in everyday positive speech.

Common words containing 婪 include: 贪婪 (tān lán) — Greedy / Avaricious; 贪婪地 (tān lán dì) — Greedily; 婪索 (lán suǒ) — To extort; to demand greedily.