Word.ws English Dictionary

first among equals

first among equals noun: a person or position that is formally of equal rank to others in a group, but nonetheless takes a leading role within that group.

Noun

first among equals (plural firsts among equals)

  1. (idiomatic) A person or position that is formally of equal rank to others in a group, but nonetheless takes a leading role within that group.
    • The Orthodox consider the bishop of Rome to have always been merely a first among equals.
    • I wonder whether Margaret Thatcher, Harold Macmillan, Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone (going back in time) thought of themselves as mere firsts among equals.2003, H. Y. Sharada Prasad, The Book I Won't be Writing and Other Essays, page 40

Forms of first among equals

pluralfirsts among equals

Origin of first among equals

Calque of Latin primus inter pares.

Questions about first among equals

What does first among equals mean?
First among equals means a person or position that is formally of equal rank to others in a group, but nonetheless takes a leading role within that group.
What part of speech is first among equals?
First among equals is a noun.
What is the plural of first among equals?
The plural of first among equals is firsts among equals.

Words near first among equals in the dictionary

  1. First Amendment
  2. First Amendment audit
  3. First Amendment auditor
  4. First Amendment auditors
  5. First Amendment audits
  6. first among equals
  7. first and foremost
  8. first and last
  9. first angle projection
  10. first angle projections
  11. first annual

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first among equals (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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