first

\fœʁst\

/\fœʁst\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“first” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #9,006. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#9,006
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Premier, voyez first lady.

Corpus desk

Index FR-first · first · French

first · rank #9,006 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #9,006
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH financièrement

Nearest frequency peer: financièrement (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « first »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « first » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

first vs fit
60% similar
first vs fis
60% similar
first vs frs
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for first
PropertyValue
Headwordfirst
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\fœʁst\
Letters5
Frequency rank#9,006
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « first »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).firstse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « financièrement » (#9,005), « exclure » (#9,004), « fragments » (#9,008). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « first » est au #9,006. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around first (IPA \fœʁst\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #9,006 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 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". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fit", "fis", "frs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is first, spelled F-I-R-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Premier, voyez first lady.
  2. 2
    D’abord, avant tout.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how first appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ça ne les gêne pas plus que les filles d’être traités en demeurés par le prof. À moins qu’ils n’aient peur de se faire remarquer, examen first.

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 - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ffirst1firrst1firsst1firstt1firts2fisrt2frist2ifrst2
Edit distance from "first"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "first"?
"first" is spelled F-I-R-S-T. The IPA pronunciation is \fœʁst\.
What does "first" mean?
As an adjective, "first" means: Premier, voyez first lady.
What words are commonly confused with "first"?
"first" is commonly confused with "fit", "fis", "frs". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "first"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "first" is \fœʁst\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "first" come from?
"first" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "first", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

dotée#8,986light#9,033clown#8,974Chloé#8,972

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

gouttes8 variantsgraisse8 variantsmature8 variantschars8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list