# first

> English word · Adjective · IPA /fɜːst/ · frequency rank #81

## Definitions
1. Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
2. Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
3. Of or belonging to a first family.
4. Coming 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”).

## Easily confused with
- **fit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fit)
- **FIS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fis)
- **fish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fish)
- **fort** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fort)
- **fits** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fits)
- **fist** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fist)
- **fret** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fret)
- **frat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-frat)
- **fisk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fisk)
- **furs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-furs)
- **FISA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fisa)
- **frost** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-frost)
- **flirt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-flirt)
- **fists** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-fists)
- **firth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-firth)
- **forest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-forest)
- **firsts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-firsts)
- **firstly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/first-vs-firstly)
- **fir** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fir-vs-first)
- **fire** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fire-vs-first)

## Common misspellings (8)
`ffirst`, `firrst`, `firsst`, `firstt`, `firts`, `fisrt`, `frist`, `ifrst`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/first