First hand or firsthand?

first hand is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of firsthand”; firsthand is an adjective meaning “Direct, without intermediate stages”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. first hand is written as two words and firsthand as one word; they are used differently.

first handorfirsthand

What is the difference between first hand and firsthand?

	first hand	firsthand
Part of speech	adjective, adverb	adjective, adverb
Meaning	Directly or from personal experience	Direct, without intermediate stages Not previously owned or used; contrasted with secondhand Directly or from personal experience
Example	none recorded	firsthand knowledge
Pronunciation	not recorded	/ˈfɜːstˌhænd/ /ˈfɝstˌhænd/ [ˈfɝstˌhɛənd]
In writing	not counted (the list counts single words)	1.8 times per million words

Sources: first hand and firsthand in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of first hand and firsthand

first hand

1
adjective Alternative spelling of firsthand
2
adjective Alternative form of firsthand
3
adverb Directly or from personal experience

firsthand

1
adjective Direct, without intermediate stages
firsthand knowledge
2
adverb Directly or from personal experience
3
adjective Not previously owned or used; contrasted with secondhand
a firsthand copy

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, first hand or firsthand?

first hand is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; firsthand 1.8 times per million words.

firsthand0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How many people search first hand vs firsthand?

“first hand vs firsthand” is searched about 110 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“firsthand vs first hand”, “first hand or firsthand”).

Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.