大体(だいたい)Most・mostly, Adequately・generally, For the most part, Roughly・approximately, In the first place

大体(だいたい) is an adverb that is used to highlight the 'main point' of something in Japanese, and therefore has several different nuances. 大体(だいたい) will regularly be translated as 'mostly', 'generally', or 'for the most part'.

As with other adverbs that highlight amounts, 大体(だいたい) can be used to modify entire phrases, or can be used directly before a noun as 大体(だいたい)の + noun.

In a similar way to そもそも, a noun/adverb which means 'in the first place', 大体(だいたい) can also have this meaning. This nuance is frequently quite obvious, as the rest of the sentence will highlight a desired outcome that unfortunately did not happen.

Although these 2 primary uses of 大体(だいたい) may seem quite different, they are both just expressing what is 'essentially' correct, most common, the original, etc.

Fun Fact

A common synonym for 大体(だいたい) is 根本(ねもと), a noun which means 'the source', or 'the origin' of something. In this way, 大体(だいたい) just expresses the way something is, without receiving any alterations (regardless of whether any subsequent alterations are positive or negative). This is where the 'in essence' meaning comes from.