Word.ws English Dictionary

first year

first year noun: a first-year student.

Noun

first year (countable and uncountable, plural first years)

  1. (countable) A first-year student.
    • The obvious topic for this issue is the new first year students. What are they like? It would be easy to say that they seem to be a typical mob of apathetic new students. It would be more correct however, to say that they are simply a typical bunch of first years. They were given one of the best...1969 March 13, Charlie Dickins, “[Editorial]”, in Woroni, volume 21, number 2, Canberra: A.N.U. Students’ Association; Canberra Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., page 2
    • Another thing you should know about is that the first years always stand with the teachers on the first day.1979, Alan Bleasdale, No More Sitting on the Old School Bench, Huddersfield, W.Y.: Woodhouse Books, published 1983, →ISBN, page 30
  2. (Philippines, historical, uncountable) The first year of high school; seventh grade (now grade 7 of junior high school).
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see first, year.
    • The use of sterilized compost when planting should minimize problems with weeds, at least for the first years.1992, Christopher Brickell, editor, The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening, London: BCA by arrangement with Dorling Kindersley, published 1994, →ISBN, page 207, column 1
    • For many couples, the first years seem to go the best.2012, Phyllis Koch-Sheras, Peter Sheras, Lifelong Love: 4 Steps to Creating and Maintaining an Extraordinary Relationship, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 142

Examples of first year in a sentence

  • The obvious topic for this issue is the new first year students.1969 March 13, Charlie Dickins, “[Editorial]”, in Woroni, volume 21, number 2, Canberra: A.N.U. Students’ Association; Canberra Publishing...
  • Obviously it is pointless to expect from a group of first years the ability to pursue any great degree of abstraction in the preparation of a dance.1980, Rita Allcock, Wendy Bland, Dance in Education, London: Dance Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 8:
  • Jo left the school in the wake of a bunch of first years who made for the gate as if the building was on fire.1993, Linda Mather, chapter 23, in Blood of an Aries, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 193:
  • The first years always fancy an older man, mate.2005, Jasmin Oliver, Gucci Girls: Cutting It, London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, →ISBN, page 7:

Forms of first year

pluralfirst years
alternative formfirst-year
alternative form1st year

Questions about first year

What does first year mean?
First year means a first-year student.
How do you use first year in a sentence?
The obvious topic for this issue is the new first year students.
What part of speech is first year?
First year is a noun.
What is the plural of first year?
The plural of first year is first years.

Words near first year in the dictionary

  1. First World War
  2. First Worlder
  3. First Worlders
  4. first XI
  5. first XV
  6. first year
  7. first years
  8. first-aid box
  9. first-aid boxes
  10. first-aid kit
  11. first-aid kits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first year (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 year.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/first_year. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.