first🔊

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

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

Of or belonging to a first family.

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

Before anything else; firstly.

For the first time.

(nonstandard) Now.(text=Another word with what is apparently a direct translation is the word 'first', which is 'sin' in Cantonese. The two words do seem to have largely identical meanings, except 'sin' also carries the meaning 'now'.) {{rfv-sense|en}}

The person or thing in the first position.

The first gear of an engine.

Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.

(baseball) first base

(colloquial) A first-class honours degree.

(colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.

(in combination) A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.

(rare) To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.

(obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.