first and foremost

Idioms  

1. Also, first of all. Most important, primarily; also, to begin with. For example, First and foremost, I want to thank our sponsors, or What we need, first and foremost, is a new secretary, or We have to deal, first of all, with the early history. The first term, dating from the late 1300s, is redundant, since first and foremost mean virtually the same thing. Both it and the variant, which dates from the mid-1500s, are used to give emphasis to the initial item in a list of several. Also see first off; first thing.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

first and foremost

“It’s going to be first and foremost — like any record or anything that I do — cathartic for me.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

War is first and foremost a collective endeavor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Later, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, wrote that responsibility lay "first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre".

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Companies are first and foremost worried about liability.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

He'd need to make sure he was ready, and to put his best foot forward, first and foremost, he needed to not smell like a...forward foot.

From "Look Both Ways" by Jason Reynolds

Related Words

• basically
• chiefly
• generally
• importantly
• largely
• mostly
• notably
• particularly
• predominantly