What does first mean?

What does first mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does first mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] the first or highest in an ordering or series(He wanted to be the first)[a] preceding all others in time or space or degree(the first house on the right the first day of spring his first political race her first baby the first time the first meetings of the new party the first phase of

first

first - The Free Dictionary

[n] the first or highest in an ordering or series
(He wanted to be the first)

[a] preceding all others in time or space or degree
(the first house on the right the first day of spring his first political race her first baby the first time the first meetings of the new party the first phase of his training)

[r] before anything else
(first we must consider the garter snake)

[n] the first element in a countable series
(the first of the month)

[a] indicating the beginning unit in a series

[r] the initial time
(when Felix first saw a garter snake)

[n] the time at which something is supposed to begin
(they got an early start she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her)

[a] serving to set in motion
(the magazine's inaugural issue the initiative phase in the negotiations an initiatory step toward a treaty his first (or maiden) speech in Congress the liner's maiden voyage)

[r] before another in time, space, or importance
(I was here first let's do this job first)

[n] the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed at first of the bases in the infield (counting counterclockwise from home plate)

[a] serving to begin
(the beginning canto of the poem the first verse)

[r] prominently forward
(he put his best foot foremost)

[n] an honours degree of the highest class

[a] ranking above all others
(was first in her class the foremost figure among marine artists the top graduate)

[n] the lowest forward gear ratio in the gear box of a motor vehicle; used to start a car moving

[a] highest in pitch or chief among parts or voices or instruments or orchestra sections
(first soprano the first violin section played first horn)

Other vocabulary

f, f clef, f layer, f number, f region, f. d. roosevelt, f. g. banting, f. scott fitzgerald, f.i.s.c., fa, fa la, faa, fab, fabaceae, faberge, fabian, fabian society, fabiana, fabiana imbricata, fabianism, fable, fabled, fabric, fabricate, fabricated, fabrication, fabricator, fabulist, fabulous, fabulously, i, i chronicles, i corinthians, i esdra, i john, i kings, i maccabees, i peter, i samuel, i thessalonians, i timothy, i-beam, i. a. richards, i. f. stone, i. m. pei, i.d., i.e., i.e.d., i.q., i.w.w., ia, iaa, iaea, iago, iamb, iambic, iambus, ian douglas smith, ian fleming, ian lancaster fleming

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.