Question of the Day #547

"As Africa is not a monolith, “nommo” has more than one meaning, but the many definitions boil down to the power of the spoken word. "

From the 1st paragraph of this article at Greatist.

上記の文で、boil down toの意味は？
In the sentence above, what does "boil down to" mean?

答えは、コメントに書いてください。
Write your answer in the Comments.

明日、ここに答えを書きます。
I will add the answer and other remarks here tomorrow.

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解答

意味：
英辞郎によると、

1. 〔食べ物が〕煮詰まって～の状態にする
2. 〔問題・状況などが〕要約すると～ということになる、結局［詰まるところ］～ということになる

問題文の訳は、当然2番目になります。

Answer

According to Collins Dictionary :

If you say that a situation or problem boils down to a particular thing or can be boiled down to a particular thing, you mean that this is the most important or the most basic aspect of it.

Examples

• What they want boils down to just one thing. It is land.
• Mind you, most books I seem to read these days could probably be boiled down to a sentence.
• The problem boils down to one thing - lack of money.
• What it all boils down to is a lack of communication.
• In the end, what it all boils down to is money, or the lack of it.

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