first

CEFRA1

/fɜːst/

number · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    number

    Coming before all others in time or order.

  2. 02

    number

    Extra detail

    Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.

Examples

  • First, I'm going to do an outline of my new website.

  • I was the first in my family to go to college.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /feːst/
  • /fɜ(r)sʈ/

Deep Dive

number

Extra meaning

  1. Of or belonging to a first family.

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.

  2. Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.

More examples

In context

  • I was the first runner to reach the finish line, and won the race.

  • The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.

  • Wash before first wearing.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She arrived at the finish line blank, winning the gold medal ahead of everyone else.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

number

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 Nynors...