Word.ws English Dictionary

first gentleman

first gentleman noun: a man that is or was a spouse of the political chief executive, when speaking non-specifically.

Noun (1)

first gentleman (plural first gentlemen)

  1. (generic) A man that is or was a spouse of the political chief executive, when speaking non-specifically.

Noun (2) capitalized: First Gentleman

First Gentleman (plural First Gentlemen)

  1. The husband (or man of similar rank) of a chief executive of a nation; especially the husband of the President of a country.
    • President Gloria M. Arroyo and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo (left) during a “pamanikan” with the Montealegre family (couple at right) to ask for the hand of their daughter engaged to be married to the President’s son Mikey M. Arroyo (center). […] The day of his arrival, Malacañang announced that...2002, Isabelo T. Crisostomo, The Power and the Glory: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Her Presidency, →ISBN
    • President Macapagal-Arroyo had been amply forewarned. First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo said she “knew that her job as Vice President was to be prepared to take over[…]”2004, The Macapagal-Arroyo Presidency and Administration: Record and Legacy, 2001-2004 : President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Her Administration, University of the Philippines Press, →ISBN, page 52
  2. (US) The husband of a governor or mayor.
    • Forthcoming episodes deal with husband learning to cook, husband (henceforth to be known as First Gentleman) being seated with the wives at the Governors’ conference, and husband deploring the décor of the Governor’s mansion. / Turn off the laugh track, folks, this is no sitcom. It’s the very happy...1988 December 12, “While Nebraska Governor Kay Orr Makes Policy, Husband Bill, her ‘First Gentleman’ Bakes Meat Loaf”, in People, quoted in Governing Codes: Gender, Metaphor, and Political Identity...
    • […] the governor’s residence and by the speeding ticket she received while driving the governor’s caro Governor Kay Orr (1987–91) and her husband, Bill, set a new precedent when they became the first woman governor and “First Gentleman”[…]2008, Nebraska History, volume 89

Forms of first gentleman

pluralfirst gentlemen
pluralFirst Gentlemen

Origin of first gentleman

From First Gentleman.

By analogy with First Lady.

Questions about first gentleman

What does first gentleman mean?
First gentleman means a man that is or was a spouse of the political chief executive, when speaking non-specifically.
What part of speech is first gentleman?
First gentleman is a noun.
What is the plural of first gentleman?
The plural of first gentleman is first gentlemen.

Words near first gentleman in the dictionary

  1. First French Empire
  2. first fruits
  3. first fundamental form
  4. first gear
  5. first gears
  6. first gentleman
  7. first gentlemen
  8. first grade
  9. first grader
  10. first graders
  11. first grades

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first gentleman (page history and authors); First Gentleman (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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