Word.ws English Dictionary

in the first instance

in the first instance prepositional phrase: as the first step or stage; first.

Prepositional phrase

  1. As the first step or stage; first.
    • Work on the muskeg resulted in the formation in the first instance, and later in lengths of newly-laid track disappearing without trace into the treacherous bog.1959 March, “New Railways in Quebec”, in Railway Magazine, page 202

in the first instance meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

in the first instance in Tamil

முதல் முறை நேர்வில்

in the first instance in Malayalam

at the start, initially, at first
പ്രഥമഘട്ടത്തിൽ, പ്രാരംഭഘട്ടത്തിൽ, ആദ്യമായി, കന്നിമുന്നം, ആദിയിൽ, ആദൗ

Questions about in the first instance

What does in the first instance mean?
In the first instance means as the first step or stage; first.
What is in the first instance in Tamil?
In the first instance in Tamil is முதல் முறை நேர்வில். See In the first instance meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is in the first instance?
In the first instance is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the first instance in the dictionary

  1. in the face of
  2. in the family way
  3. in the fast lane
  4. in the field
  5. in the final analysis
  6. in the first instance
  7. in the first place
  8. in the flesh
  9. in the flower of one's youth
  10. in the foothills
  11. in the frame

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the first instance (page history and authors); in the first instance (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); in the first instance (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: “in the first instance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_first_instance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.