first
/fɜːst/
"first" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“first” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #81 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #81
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | first |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /fɜːst/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #81 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “first” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for first is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɜːst/. Corpus data places it at rank #81 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for first, with forms such as "ffirst", "firrst", and "firsst". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fit", "FIS", "fish", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”)… The correct English form is first, spelled F-I-R-S-T.
Definition
- 1Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
- 2Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
- 3Of or belonging to a first family.
- 4Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.
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”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffirst,firrst,firsst,firstt,firts,fisrt,frist,ifrst
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of first - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “first”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-I-R-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɜːst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fit” - see the side-by-side comparison. first vs fit
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.