～ずくめ
nothing but / full of
～ずくめ attaches to a noun and says that a situation, period, or appearance consists entirely of that one thing, in English “nothing but ...” or “all ... from head to toe”. It combines with a fairly small set of conventional nouns: いいこと, ごちそう, 黒, 規則, 記録, and the like.
Unlike ～だらけ, which is negative and means “covered in / riddled with” (泥だらけ, 間違いだらけ), ～ずくめ is neutral to positive and often describes a happy streak or a uniform look.
1. A run of events that are all one thing
Applied to a stretch of time or experience, ずくめ says the whole period was filled with that one kind of thing.
今年は贅沢ずくめの一年だった。
“This year was a year of nothing but luxury.”
- 今年（ことし）= this year
- は = topic marker
- 贅沢（ぜいたく）= luxury
- ずくめ = nothing but / full of
- の = linking particle
- 一年（いちねん）= one year
- だった = was
2. An appearance made of one thing
With colors, ずくめ almost always describes someone dressed entirely in that color.
黒ずくめの男が立っていた。
“A man dressed all in black was standing there.”
- 黒（くろ）= black
- ずくめ = entirely in / nothing but
- の = linking particle
- 男（おとこ）= man
- が = subject marker
- 立っていた（たっていた）= was standing
How to form it
Noun + ずくめ (often followed by の + noun)
- いいこと = good things → いいことずくめ = nothing but good things
- 黒（くろ）= black → 黒ずくめ（くろずくめ）= dressed all in black
- ごちそう = feast / delicacies → ごちそうずくめ = a spread of nothing but delicacies
Key idea
～ずくめ paints a scene in a single color: whatever noun it follows, the whole period, situation, or outfit is made of that and nothing else.
Other N1 grammar
Updated .