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~に限らず

not limited to / not just

N2 Pattern

~に限らず(にかぎらず)attaches to a noun and means that a statement is not limited to that one case, it holds more widely. It is the negative ず form of 限る(かぎる, to limit).

In English it maps to “not just X” or “not only X (but more broadly)”. The wider group often follows with も (also).

Extending beyond the obvious case

Pick the case the listener would expect, then use に限らず to say the situation goes beyond it.

週末に限らず混んでいる。

“It's crowded, and not just on weekends.”

  • 週末(しゅうまつ)= weekend
  • に限らず(にかぎらず)= not limited to
  • 混んでいる(こんでいる)= is crowded

この店はお年寄りに限らず、若い人にも人気がある。

“This shop is popular not only with older people but also with young people.”

  • この店(このみせ)= this shop
  • は = topic marker
  • お年寄り(おとしより)= older people
  • に限らず(にかぎらず)= not limited to
  • 若い人(わかいひと)= young people
  • にも = with ... also
  • 人気がある(にんきがある)= is popular

Compare this with ~に加えて: に加えて stacks one more concrete item on top of the first (“X, and on top of that Y”), while に限らず removes a boundary and opens the statement up to a whole wider group.

How to form it

Noun + に限らず

  • 週末(しゅうまつ)= weekend → 週末に限らず(しゅうまつにかぎらず)= not just on weekends
  • 子供(こども)= children → 子供に限らず(こどもにかぎらず)= not only children
  • 日本(にほん)= Japan → 日本に限らず(にほんにかぎらず)= not only in Japan

Key idea

~に限らず erases a limit: “you might think this applies only to X, but in fact it applies far more widely.”

Other N2 grammar

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Updated .