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first officer

American

noun

first mate.
copilot.

first officer British

noun

another name for first mate
the member of an aircraft crew who is second in command to the captain

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The captain and his first officer were taken into police custody in early October before returning to sea.

From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026

Prosecutors argued over the three-week trial that Gonzales, 52, failed to immediately confront the gunman as the first officer on the scene.

From BBC • Jan. 21, 2026

She knelt in front of the first officer she saw, told him she’d fled the colectivos, and pleaded for a chance to seek asylum.

From Slate • Jan. 15, 2026

On the first two legs, he and first officer Eric Tellman noticed a dirty sock-like smell—an indicator of a fume event—spreading through the Airbus A319 just as they started their descent.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025

If the first officer had been the captain, would he have hinted three times?

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023