Word.ws English Dictionary

first past the post

first past the post noun: a voting system where the candidate with the most votes (a plurality) wins, without any form of preference transfer.

Noun

first past the post (uncountable)

  1. A voting system where the candidate with the most votes (a plurality) wins, without any form of preference transfer.
    • In our two-party system, that aloofness and hostility is partly a result of a first-past-the-post electoral system that worships the wedge, with each party terrified that one issue might catch fire and swing marginal seats away from victory.2023 August 7, Nesrine Malik, “British people are kinder and less divided than politicians give us credit for”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    FPTP, simple majority voting, plurality voting

Synonyms of first past the post

  • FPTP
  • simple majority voting
  • plurality voting

Origin of first past the post

A metaphor derived from horse racing, referring to the first horse to physically pass the winning post at the finish line, regardless of the distance to the runner-up.

Questions about first past the post

What does first past the post mean?
First past the post means a voting system where the candidate with the most votes (a plurality) wins, without any form of preference transfer.
What part of speech is first past the post?
First past the post is a noun.

Words near first past the post in the dictionary

  1. first partner
  2. First Partners
  3. first party
  4. first passage time
  5. first passage times
  6. first past the post
  7. First People
  8. First Peoples
  9. first person
  10. first philosophy
  11. first pick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first past the post (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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Cite this entry: “first past the post.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/first_past_the_post. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.