Word
一通り
Meaning in Englishgeneral, briefly
Animated kanji stroke order
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)
Related words by kanji and components
N1
似通う
nikayou
to resemble closely
N1
一概に
ichigaini
unconditionally, necessarily
N1
一同
ichidou
all present, all concerned, all of us
N1
一部分
ichibubun
a part, a portion
N1
一別
ichibetsu
parting
N1
一面
ichimen
one side, the other hand
N1
一目
ichimoku
a glance, a look, a glimpse
N1
一様
ichiyou
uniform, similar, equal
N1
一律
ichiritsu
even, uniform, equal