English Explanatory Dictionary

first

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
  2. Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
  3. Of or belonging to a first family.
  4. Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.
adv
  1. Before anything else; firstly.
  2. For the first time.
noun
  1. The person or thing in the first position.
  2. The first gear of an engine.
  3. Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
  4. First base.
  5. A first-class honours degree.
  6. A first-edition copy of some publication.
  7. A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.
verb
  1. To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.
noun
  1. Time; time granted; respite.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/fɜːst/ /feːst/ /fɛːst/ /fɔːst/ /fɪrst/ /fʌrst/ /føːst/ fŭrst /fɚst/ /fʊːɹs/ [fɚːst] [fəɹst] /fɜ(r)sʈ/ /fə(r)sʈ/ /fʊrst/ en-us-first.ogg

Word forms

first firstmost 1st Ist I I. furst firste fyrst fyrste firsts firsting firsted

Etymology

From Middle English first, furst, ferst, fyrst, from Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz (“first, foremost”), superlative of Proto-Germanic *furai, *furi (“before”), from Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“before”), from *per- (“before; first”), equivalent to fore + -est. Cognates Cognate with Scots first (“first”), Dutch voorste (“foremost, first”), vorst (“prince”), German Fürst (“chief, prince”, literally “first (born)”), Limburgish Vürsch (“prince”), Luxembourgish viischt (“anterior; forward”), Vilamovian fiyśt, fjəšt, fjyśt, fjyšt (“prince”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål først (“first”), Faroese and Icelandic fyrstur (“first”), Norwegian Nynorsk fyrst, først (“first”), Swedish först (“first”); also Latin prīnceps (“first, foremost; chief”), Greek παρ’ (par’), παρά (pará, “despite; less”), Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀫 (pa-ro, “from”), Albanian parë (“first; chief, main”), Latgalian pyrmais (“first”), Latvian pirmais (“first; foremost”), Lithuanian pirmas (“first; primary”), Bulgarian пъ́рви (pǎ́rvi), пръ́в (prǎ́v, “first”), Czech and Slovak prvý (“first”), Macedonian прв (prv), први (prvi, “first”), Polish piersy, pierwszy, pirszy (“first”), Russian пе́рвый (pérvyj, “first”), Serbo-Croatian пр̑вӣ, pȓvī (“first”), Slovene prvi (“first”), Armenian հարավ (harav, “south”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬎𐬭𐬎𐬎𐬀 (paᵘruua, “before, first”), Tocharian A pärwat (“first”), Tocharian B parwe (“first”), Sanskrit पूर्व (pūrva, “before”).

Synonyms

maiden

Related words

for fore primary primus inter pares

Derived words

AI-first airman first class at first at first bluff at first blush at first glance at first hand at first sight at the first at the first brunt blink first book of first entry breadth-first search cast the first stone ceremonial first pitch chief petty officer first class cloud-first code-first come first court of first instance database-first dead first depth-first search deputy first minister director of first impressions double first double first cousin eighty-first error of the first kind face first facefirst feet-first feet first feetfirst fifty-first fifty-first state first aid first-aid box first-aider first aid kit first-aid kit first among equals first and foremost first and last first angle projection first annual first arch syndrome first article first baseman first basing first best first bite free first blood firstborn first-born first call First Cat first catch your hare first cause first chair

Translations

Finnish: yhdesosa Hungarian: -egyed
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