Crossword Genius

Covering everything, generally speaking (2,3,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

on the whole

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'generally speaking' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'covering everything' is the wordplay.
'covering' becomes 'on'.
'everything' becomes 'thewhole' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'on'+'thewhole'='ON THE WHOLE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for on the whole that I've seen before include "All things considered" , "Generally" , "First and last" , "In general" , "as a rule" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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