also: だり
particle
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.
週末は映画を見たり、本を読んだりして過ごす。
On weekends I spend time doing things like watching movies and reading books.
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.
particle
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.
夜中に大きな音を立てたりしないでください。
Please don't do things like making loud noises in the middle of the night.
particle
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.
「行きたり行きたり」は、「行け」と命じる特殊な形として説明される。
“Iki-tari iki-tari” is explained as a special form commanding someone to go.
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
古文の「彼は王たり」は、「彼は王である」という意味になる。
In classical Japanese, “kare wa ō tari” means “he is a king.”
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.
古文では「花咲きたり」で「花が咲いている」または「花が咲いた」を表す。
In classical Japanese, “hana saki tari” means “the flowers are in bloom” or “the flowers have bloomed.”
や lists nouns non-exhaustively, while たり lists actions or states and is attached to verb or adjective-like forms.
とか is a casual way to give examples with nouns or clauses; たり is the standard grammatical pattern for representative actions, often in 〜たりする.
たる is the related classical attributive form of the copular たり and appears in literary expressions such as 教師たる者.
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.