HSK 6 · Function Words

任意 rènyì “at will” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 任意 means

  1. at will
  2. arbitrarily
  3. any
  4. arbitrary
  5. at random

How to say 任意

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale任rèn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale意yì4th tone, falling

任意 in a sentence

  1. 贝尔被犯规了，球队获得了任意球。

    Bèi'ěr bèi fànguī le, qiúduì huòdé le rènyìqiú.

    Bale was fouled, and his team was awarded a free kick.

    Sentence #3579551 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 任意 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 任 (rèn) with each of its parts in a different colour
任rènto assign
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 壬part of the characterSound part
The character 意 (yì) with each of its parts in a different colour
意yìidea; thought; meaning; sense
  • 音sound · yīnSound part
  • 心heart · xīnMeaning part

心 hints at the meaning (heart); 音 (yīn) hints at the sound. Compare it with yì.

Memory aidA sound 音 from the heart 心: a thought, a meaning.

How to write 任意

任 6 strokes · 意 13 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

任意 (rènyì) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 任意 (rènyì). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 任意

Words with 任

任务rènwu · mission责任zérèn · responsibility任何rènhé · any信任xìnrèn · to trust担任dānrèn · to hold (a post)主任zhǔrèn · director任性rènxìng · wilful任命rènmìng · to appoint上任shàngrèn · to take office任重道远rènzhòngdàoyuǎn · to carry a heavy responsibility (lit. heavy load

Words with 意

意思yìsi · meaning没意思méiyìsi · boring有意思yǒuyìsi · interesting不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed同意tóngyì · agree愿意yuànyì · be willing注意zhùyì · pay attention to满意mǎnyì · satisfied意见yìjiàn · idea得意déyì · proud of oneself

More words: Function Words & Grammar

恰巧qiàqiǎo · by chance起码qǐmǎ · at least仍旧réngjiù · still人家rénjia · other people日益rìyì · increasingly若干ruògān · a certain number啥shá · what (informal)尚且shàngqiě · even

FAQs

任意 (rènyì) means “at will” or “arbitrarily”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it rènyì: rèn with a 4th tone, then yì with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 任意 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type renyi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 任意 from the suggestions. Typing renyi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
任意 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.