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 first person rolls everything into an individual retirement account, or IRA.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

She agreed in 2019 to take part in a pioneering Crispr-based clinical trial led by Dr. Haydar Frangoul and was the first person with SCD to receive the treatment that would eventually become Casgevy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 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

In February, Curtis was the first person to publicly announce Bianco planned to confiscate the ballots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

March 18, 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first person in the world to make a spacewalk.

From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson