HSK 5 · Work

主任 zhǔrèn “director” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 主任 means

  1. director
  2. head (of a department)
  3. head

Measure word 个 gè · 一个主任 yí ge zhǔrèn

How to say 主任

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale主zhǔ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale任rèn4th tone, falling

主任 in a sentence

  1. 在主任不在的时候,办公室由谁来负责?

    Zài zhǔrèn bú zài de shíhou, bàngōngshì yóu shéi lái fùzé?

    Who’s in charge of the office while the director is away?

    Sentence #8806666 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他以前是教授,后来当了系主任。

    Tā yǐqián shì jiàoshòu, hòulái dāng le xì zhǔrèn.

    He used to be a professor; later he became head of department.

    Sentence #8645573 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 主任 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 主 (zhǔ) with each of its parts in a different colour
主zhǔowner
  • 丶dot · zhǔ
  • 王king · wáng

Memory aidThe dot 丶 on top was once the flame of a lamp: the main one, the master.

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

How to write 主任

主 5 strokes · 任 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 主任

Words with 主

Words with 任

More words: Work & Career

FAQs

主任 (zhǔrèn) means “director” or “head (of a department)”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it zhǔrèn: zhǔ with a 3rd tone, then rèn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 主任 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 个 (gè). For example, one director is 一个主任 (yí ge zhǔrèn).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhuren with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 主任 from the suggestions. Typing zhuren into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
主任 is an HSK 5 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.