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.

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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 )

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Etymology

Origin of first person

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

first person

The competition offered a $700,000 Grand Prize to the first person who could decipher four passages containing at least 140 characters each from two Herculaneum scrolls imaged with X-ray CT.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026

Because indeed, patient zero—which refers to the first person to be infected with an illness or disease in an outbreak—is a loaded term.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

Welsh actor Matthew Rhys has made history at the Emmy Awards, becoming the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

At the time, he was the first person who wrote about her in a way that didn’t make me feel grossed out.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026

The first person who rubbed two sticks together to make a fire was conducting an experiment.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton