first
/fɜːst/
"first" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“first” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #81. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #81
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
Corpus desk
Index EN-first · first · English
first · rank #81 · 8 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #81
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH after
Nearest frequency peer: after (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “first”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- good
good
99,923 corpus weight
- only
only
99,922 corpus weight
- after
after
99,921 corpus weight
- first
first
99,920 corpus weight
- him
him
99,919 corpus weight
- into
into
99,918 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “first” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around first (IPA /fɜːst/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #81 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how first appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hancock was first to arrive.
The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.
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
How do you spell "first"?
What does "first" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "first"?
How do you pronounce "first"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "first", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "first". Here's where to go from here.
- "first" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "fit". View pair
- 8 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #81 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "F" letter cohort. F–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.