first

Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.

Hancock was first to arrive.

The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.

Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.

Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.

the first violinist

Of or belonging to a first family.

First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son

Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.

Before anything else; firstly.

Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.

I plunged nose first into the water.

For the first time.

I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.

The person or thing in the first position.

He was the first to complete the course.

Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

The first gear of an engine.

Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.

This is a first. For once he has nothing to say.

I remember other firsts: how I wussily asked her out the first time, and the first time I told her I loved her.

First base.

There was a close play at first.

A first-class honours degree.

[Stephen Hawking] […] would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him a first, and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got a first.