first person

American  

[furst pur-suhn] / ˈfɜrst ˈpɜr sən /

noun

1. the grammatical person used by a speaker in statements referring to the speaker's own self first person singular or to a group including the speaker first person plural.

2. a pronoun or verb form in the first person, as I or am in English, or a set of such forms.

3. a literary style in which the narrative is told from the perspective of a narrator speaking directly.

   The story is written in the first person.

---

first person British  

noun

1. a grammatical category of pronouns and verbs used by the speaker to refer to or talk about himself or herself, either alone ( first person singular ) or together with others ( first person plural )

---

Etymology

Origin of first person

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

First-person accounts of Mr. Gifford enduring and sometimes enjoying high temperatures enrich his narrative.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026

First-person accounts from locals describe seeing an intense flash of light in the early morning of July 16.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 26, 2023

First-person storytelling is interspersed with third-person “fictionalizing” of one’s narrative.

From Washington Post • Apr. 2, 2023

First-person point of view is the most frequently used in memoirs and personal narratives and serves as an authentic and credible point of view.

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

First-person storytelling, the novel seems to say, should be reserved for matters of love, aesthetics, and anecdotes, not for weighty questions of history.

From Slate • Jul. 21, 2017