firstly
Syllables: first·ly/ˈfɜɹstli/
firstly adverb: in the first place; before anything else; first.
Adverb
firstly (not comparable)
- In the first place; before anything else; first.
- Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants. […] Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii
- We'll go into more depth with all the specs shortly so anyone less well versed in espresso speak will understand what I'm harping on about, but firstly let's just talk about using the machine.2025 May 3, Kev, “Rocket Appartamento TCA Review”, in Coffee Blog
- Synonyms:
- first, first of all, first up, 1stly, first off, in the first place
firstly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
firstly in Hindi
- firstly, first of all
- प्रथमतः prathamtaḥ, अव्वलन avvalan
firstly in Tamil
- in the first place
- முதலில் mutalil
firstly in Urdu
- firstly
- اولا avvalān, اولین avvalīn, نخستین nuxustīn
firstly in Bengali
- in the first place
- আউয়াল auẏal
More languagesFewer languages
- firstly in Malayalam
- ആദ്യം ādyaṁ, ഒന്നാമത് onnāmatŭ
- firstly in Sanskrit
- प्रथमम् prathamam
- firstly in Arabic
- أَوَّلًا ʔawwalan
- firstly in Malay
- pertama, semula
- firstly in Persian
- اولا awvalan
- firstly in Vietnamese
- trước hết, trước nhất, trước tiên
Examples of firstly in a sentence
- Firstly, that's illegal; secondly, it has serious disadvantages; thirdly, it's not necessary; and lastly, did I mention that it's illegal?
- Firstly, bandwidth estimation requires sending extra burst packets that brings a considerable overhead into the system.
- Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
Synonyms of firstly
Antonyms
Forms of firstly
| alternative form | 1stly |
|---|
Origin of firstly
Coined before 1475, from Middle English fyrst-lyk, equivalent to first + -ly.
Questions about firstly
- What does firstly mean?
- Firstly means in the first place; before anything else; first.
- What is firstly in Hindi?
- Firstly in Hindi is प्रथमतः (prathamtaḥ), अव्वलन (avvalan). See Firstly meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is firstly?
- Firstly is an adverb.
- How do you pronounce firstly?
- Firstly is pronounced /ˈfɜɹstli/.
Words near firstly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: firstly (page history and authors); अव्वलन (Hindi) (page history and authors); اولا (Urdu) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-firstly.wav.
Cite this entry: “firstly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/firstly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.