Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

任: responsibility, duty

Also: term, entrust to, appoint

JLPT N36 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met

亻 carries the meaning · 壬 gives the sound

6 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Three readings, and the words that use each

ニンnin · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 任期にんきterm of appointment
  • 任務にんむduty, task
  • 任意にんいoptional, voluntary
  • 責任せきにんresponsibility
  • 主任しゅにんchief, manager
  • 任命するにんめいするappoint
  • 就任するしゅうにんするbe inaugurated, take office [v.i.]
  • 赴任するふにんするtransfer to a new post [v.i.]
  • 担任するたんにんするbe in charge (class) [v.t.]
  • 辞任するじにんするresign

まかせるmakaseru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 任せるまかせるentrust to another [v.t.]

まかすmakasu · kun'yomi

  • 任すまかすentrust [v.t.]

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)人 person, as 亻 (meaning) + 壬 (sound)

To carry on a shoulder pole.

Source: Wiktionary, 任 (rev. 93779652), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“See the person standing tall, ready to interact with the world! When this radical appears on the left, it signals that the kanji describes a human quality, a social relationship, or an action that people perform.”
More in the 亻 person story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
亻

Also built on person (亻)

All 103
壬

Also built on 壬

任 takes the 壬 family's reading, ニン (nin).

任 gives its sound to

Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ニン

7 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
任 responsibility · 壬
vs仕 attend · 士
任 has 壬 where 仕 has 士.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · rèn

Same form: 任 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
任 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
任 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin rèn most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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