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
一連
ichiren
a series, a chain, a ream (of paper)
N1
一括
ikkatsu
all together, batch
N1
一気
ikki
at one push, in one gulp
N1
一挙に
ikkyoni
at a stroke, with a single swoop
N1
一見
ikken
a look, a glimpse, glance; first meeting
N1
一切
issai
without exception, the whole
N1
一心
isshin
one mind, with rapt attention
N1
一変
ippen
complete change
N1
単一
tanitsu
single, simple, sole