Word.ws English Dictionary

first come, first served

first come, first served phrase: one will be dealt with in the order in which one arrives. Also the alternative spelling of first-come-first-served.

Phrase

first come, first served

  1. (idiomatic) One will be dealt with in the order in which one arrives.
    • This complicated situation means that strategically managing services through the central Manchester area and beyond is not possible for signallers in the Greater Manchester area, and trains are invariably dealt with on a 'first come, first served' basis.2020 January 2, Philip Haigh, “Is there relief to congestion along Castlefield Corridor?”, in Rail, page 22

Also used as

first come, first served is also the alternative spelling of first-come-first-served.

Forms of first come, first served

alternative formfirst come, first serve

Words formed from first come, first served

Questions about first come, first served

What does first come, first served mean?
First come, first served means one will be dealt with in the order in which one arrives.
What part of speech is first come, first served?
First come, first served is a phrase.

Words near first come, first served in the dictionary

  1. first class matches
  2. first classes
  3. First Coast
  4. first come first serve
  5. first come first served
  6. first come, first served
  7. First Communion
  8. First Communions
  9. first conditional
  10. first conditionals
  11. first contact

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first come, first served (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-first come, first served.ogg.

Cite this entry: “first come, first served.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/first_come%2C_first_served. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.