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

Appointed to finish the term of her brother Lindsey Graham, who died this month at 71, Darline is the first person to directly succeed a sibling in the Senate’s 237-year history.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

I was the first person in the economy cabin and had my pick of overhead bins.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

In Netflix’s new “Little House on the Prairie” adaptation, the first person that the Ingalls family encounters on their journey to Independence, Kansas, is a Black man.

From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk lost his trillionaire status on Tuesday, less than two weeks after becoming the first person to achieve it following SpaceX's public debut, according to data from Bloomberg.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

“I’m going to be the first person in the world to be sent by television!”

From "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl