Word
一通り
Meaning in Englishgeneral, briefly
Animated kanji stroke order
Sentence
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
What does 一通り mean? It denotes handling something in a general, cursory, or routine way, such as going through material once to grasp the gist or covering the basics without going into depth.
Main meanings
- General overview or cursory treatment: going through something once to grasp the gist.
- In a routine or general sense: the usual scope or extent, not in depth.
- With する: performing an action in a basic or superficial manner, or going through the motions.
How to use it
- Casual to formal contexts: used to describe performing an activity at a general or superficial level.
- With verbs: 一通り見る, 一通り読む, 一通り説明する to indicate a basic, non-exhaustive pass.
- Common in planning or reviews where depth is not required at the moment.
Variants and close terms
- ざっと (zatto) — roughly, briefly
- だいたい (daitai) — generally, roughly
- おおむね (oomune) — mostly, generally
Composition
- 一: means one, individual, or single unit.
- 通り: means way, method, or path; in this compound it conveys the sense of manner or coverage.
Etymology
ひと + とおり → ひととおり (hitotōri) demonstrates a native reading of a compound where 一 contributes the sense of 'one' and 通り conveys 'way/mashion,' with phonetic assimilation producing a single, natural pronunciation.
Word class
noun (suru-verbable)
Word
Related words by kanji and components
N3
一層
issou
even more, still more
N3
一体
ittai
what on earth, generally, one body
N3
一致
icchi
agreement, match, conformity
N3
一般
ippan
general, common, public
N3
一方
ippou
on the other hand, meanwhile, one side
N3
共通
kyoutsuu
common, shared, mutual
N3
万一
manichi
if by any chance, emergency case
N3
唯一
yuiitsu
only, sole, unique
N3
一帯
ittai
whole area, entire region
Kanji