一览无余

Pronunciation: yī lǎn wú yú Literal meaning: One glance nothing remaining

Origin & Usage

One (一) sweep of the eye (览), and nothing (无) left over (余). 余 is the remainder, what is left once everything has been accounted for, so the claim is completeness rather than mere clarity: no part of the thing escaped the single look. Whether that is a virtue is not settled by the phrase. In the Shishuo Xinyu, Wang Xun defends the crooked streets of Jiankang on exactly the opposite grounds — straighten them and the city would be taken in 一览而尽, exhausted at a glance, where winding lanes keep it unfathomable. Applied to a view it is praise, and applied to a plan or a person it can mean there was nothing held back and nothing in reserve.

Examples

English: "From the mountaintop, the entire valley was visible at a glance."

Chinese: 从山顶上，整个山谷一览无余。