How to Write 滥 (làn) — Meaning “excessive; indiscriminate”

Picture water (氵) overflowing a container because someone is "lazy" in supervising it — the right part 监 sounds like "lazy" (a loose mnemonic). Imagine a flood spreading everywhere because no one watched the water level.

The left radical 氵 is written as three dots, with the middle dot slightly lower. The right part 监 has a small horizontal stroke at the top, then a left-falling stroke, and the lower part must be balanced — common mistakes include making the right side too tall or misplacing the dots.

滥 (làn) means "excessive" or "flood" and uses 监 on the right, while 涪 (fú) is a river name and has 咅 on the right, and 涫 (guàn) means "to boil" and has 官 on the right. Visually, 滥 has a more complex right side with a top "lid" stroke that 涪 and 涫 lack.

滥 appears in 泛滥 (fàn làn, to flood) to describe both literal floods and overabundance, like information flooding. It also forms 滥用 (làn yòng, to misuse) for overusing resources or authority, and the idiom 宁缺毋滥 (nìng quē wú làn) means "better to go without than to have poor quality."

Common words containing 滥 include: 泛滥 (fàn làn) — To overflow; to flood.; 滥用 (làn yòng) — to abuse; to misuse; 宁缺毋滥 (nìng quē wú làn) — Better to go without than to have something of poor quality..