also: だり
doing A and B; A-ing and B-ing; alternating or listing actions
Used in the pattern 〜たり〜たり, often followed by する, to list representative or alternating actions and states rather than an exhaustive sequence.
On weekends I spend time doing things like watching movies and reading books.
doing things like ...; such as doing ...
A single 〜たり, especially in 〜たりする or 〜たりしない, presents the action as one example among possible things.
Please don't do things like making loud noises in the middle of the night.
commanding form with repeated verb
A special sentence-final 〜たり〜たり pattern with a repeated verb stem, described as expressing a command. This is not the ordinary modern way to give commands.
copula, auxiliary verb, irregular -ru verb (-ri ending)
Only with reading たり
Archaic copular たり used after a noun, from とあり. The related attributive form たる is more familiar in set literary-style expressions.
See also: たる
auxiliary verb, irregular -ru verb (-ri ending)
have done; be in a resulting state; continue to be doing
Only with reading たり
Archaic auxiliary たり used after a verb stem, from 〜てあり, indicating completion or a continuing/resulting state.
子どもが廊下を行ったり来たりしている。
A child is going back and forth in the hallway.
“Iki-tari iki-tari” is explained as a special form commanding someone to go.
In classical Japanese, “kare wa ō tari” means “he is a king.”
In classical Japanese, “hana saki tari” means “the flowers are in bloom” or “the flowers have bloomed.”
On my days off, I do things like read books and listen to music.
He sometimes does things like skip work.
とか is a casual way to list examples of nouns or clauses, while たり is the standard grammatical pattern for listing representative actions, usually with 〜たりする.
や lists nouns non-exhaustively (like 'and' among other things), whereas たり lists actions or states and attaches to verb or adjective forms.
Kana particle and auxiliary form. In modern use it appears bound to verb and adjective forms, as in 見たり and 行ったり.
Voiced allomorph seen in forms such as 読んだり and 遊んだり. It is not used for the archaic たり auxiliary and copula senses restricted to たり.
Archaic copular たり as from とあり and archaic auxiliary たり as from 〜てあり. The modern kana particle is a bound grammatical form; だり is the voiced allomorph in appropriate verb forms.