| Noun | 1. | first - the first or highest in an ordering or series; "He wanted to be the first"former - the first of two or the first mentioned of two; "Tom and Dick were both heroes but only the former is remembered today" rank - relative status; "his salary was determined by his rank and seniority" | |
| 2. | first - the first element in a countable series; "the first of the month" | |
| 3. | first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her"birth - the time when something begins (especially life); "they divorced after the birth of the child"; "his election signaled the birth of a new age" incipience, incipiency - beginning to exist or to be apparent; "he placed the incipience of democratic faith at around 1850"; "it is designed to arrest monopolies in their incipiency" threshold - the starting point for a new state or experience; "on the threshold of manhood" | |
| 4. | first - the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed at first baseposition - (in team sports) the role assigned to an individual player; "what position does he play?" | |
| 5. | first - an honours degree of the highest class | |
| 6. | first - the lowest forward gear ratio in the gear box of a motor vehicle; used to start a car movinggear mechanism, gear - a mechanism for transmitting motion by gears for some specific purpose (as the steering gear of a vehicle) | |
| Adj. | 1. | first - preceding all others in time or space or degree; "the first house on the right"; "the first day of spring"; "his first political race"; "her first baby"; "the first time"; "the first meetings of the new party"; "the first phase of his training"front - relating to or located in the front; "the front lines"; "the front porch" early - at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time; "early morning"; "an early warning"; "early diagnosis"; "an early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring"; "early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most standard varieties" original - being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of; "a truly original approach"; "with original music"; "an original mind" primary - of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondhand; "primary goals"; "a primary effect"; "primary sources"; "a primary interest" intermediate - lying between two extremes in time or space or degree; "going from sitting to standing without intermediate pushes with the hands"; "intermediate stages in a process"; "intermediate stops on the route"; "an intermediate level" last - coming after all others in time or space or degree or being the only one remaining; "the last time I saw Paris"; "the last day of the month"; "had the last word"; "waited until the last minute"; "he raised his voice in a last supreme call"; "the last game of the season"; "down to his last nickel" | |
| 2. | first - indicating the beginning unit in a seriesordinal - being or denoting a numerical order in a series; "ordinal numbers"; "held an ordinal rank of seventh" | |
| 3. | first - serving to set in motion; "the magazine's inaugural issue"; "the initiative phase in the negotiations"; "an initiatory step toward a treaty"; "his first (or maiden) speech in Congress"; "the liner's maiden voyage"opening - first or beginning; "the memorable opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth"; "the play's opening scene" | |
| 4. | first - serving to begin; "the beginning canto of the poem"; "the first verse"opening - first or beginning; "the memorable opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth"; "the play's opening scene" | |
| 5. | first - ranking above all others; "was first in her class"; "the foremost figure among marine artists"; "the top graduate"best - (superlative of `good') having the most positive qualities; "the best film of the year"; "the best solution"; "the best time for planting"; "wore his best suit" | |
| 6. | first - highest in pitch or chief among parts or voices or instruments or orchestra sections; "first soprano"; "the first violin section"; "played first horn"music - an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner second - a part or voice or instrument or orchestra section lower in pitch than or subordinate to the first; "second flute"; "the second violins" | |
| 7. | first - being the gear producing the lowest drive speed; "use first gear on steep hills"forward - of the transmission gear causing forward movement in a motor vehicle; "in a forward gear" | |
| Adv. | 1. | first - before anything else; "first we must consider the garter snake" | |
| 2. | first - the initial time; "when Felix first saw a garter snake" | |
| 3. | first - before another in time, space, or importance; "I was here first"; "let's do this job first" | |
| 4. | first - prominently forward; "he put his best foot foremost" | |