Word.ws English Dictionary

first world problem

first world problem noun: a complaint or frustration regarded as trivial that is experienced only by inhabitants in wealthy or developed nations.

Noun (1)

first world problem (plural first world problems)

  1. A complaint or frustration regarded as trivial that is experienced only by inhabitants in wealthy or developed nations.
    • The South African housing problem is not a First World problem, it says.1979, To the Point News in Depth, volume 8, numbers 18-35, page 21
    • Someone would love to have my first world problems / Kill the moon and turn out the sun / Lock your door and load your gun / Free at last now the time has come to choose1995, “Omissions of the Omen”, in Matthew Good Band (music), Last of the Ghetto Astronauts

Noun (2) capitalized: First World problem

First World problem (plural First World problems)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of first world problem.

Synonyms of first world problem

Forms of first world problem

pluralfirst world problems
alternative formFirst World problem
alternative formfirst-world problem
pluralFirst World problems

Origin of first world problem

From First World + problem. First use appears c. 1979. See cite below.

Questions about first world problem

What does first world problem mean?
First world problem means a complaint or frustration regarded as trivial that is experienced only by inhabitants in wealthy or developed nations.
What part of speech is first world problem?
First world problem is a noun.
What is the plural of first world problem?
The plural of first world problem is first world problems.

Words near first world problem in the dictionary

  1. first watches
  2. first water
  3. first woman
  4. first women
  5. First World
  6. first world problem
  7. first world problems
  8. First World War
  9. First Worlder
  10. First Worlders
  11. first XI

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first world problem (page history and authors); First World problem (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-first world problem.wav.

Cite this entry: “first world problem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/first_world_problem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.