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I would like to know the meaning of 一通り ( translations found: briefly, generally)　in the sentence

オレたちは一通り敷地内の説明を受けた後、解散となった。

It has been translated as:

After we got an explanation of all the buildings and facilities on campus, the group split up.

But I cannot find the meaning of 一通り here. Is it "a general explaination" or "a brief explaination" ?

Could you explain me ?

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  • Why can't you find the meaning of the word? It is in WWWJDIC: edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1MDJ%B0%EC%C4%CC%A4%EA
    – user36788
    Mar 20, 2020 at 2:23
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    Hi Ben, I had looked for translations (provided in the question) but could not find the exact meaning in the context. The reference you mention gives: "generally; in the main; briefly (look over, explain, etc.); roughly; more or less; (n) (2) (more or less) everything; all parts; bit of everything;" and much more other translations so I was a bit puzzled which to choose in the context of the sentence. As you are aware, sometimes the translations given are not very helpul to understand the precise meaning, which is why the answer provided helped me to understand the word in the context.
    – Makoto
    Mar 20, 2020 at 8:22

1 Answer 1

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一通り (adverb, no-adj) means "all, although briefly". For example, 一通り理解している means one has a rough understanding of the entire topic. Your sentence means he got a brief explanation of the entire campus enough to get started. It doesn't necessarily mean every single building was explained, but it at least means important ones were explained.

From 明鏡国語辞典 第二版:

ひと‐とおり【一通り】

一応、全体にわたっていること。「━の知識はある」「━書類に目を通す」

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  • Thanks for bringing the nuance !
    – Makoto
    Mar 19, 2020 at 20:07

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