First World
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of First World
First recorded in 1970–75
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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.
But the pandemic of Spanish flu after the First World War killed around 50 million people worldwide.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Related: I have a ‘mundane’ First World problem: Should I buy a $30,000 bracelet during a global pandemic?
From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026
The region once belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire but was ceded to Italy as part of a First World War settlement.
From Barron's • Feb. 2, 2026
As the poet William Butler Yeats observed after the end of the First World War, the center is not holding, while the best lack all conviction.
From Salon • Nov. 10, 2025
His beloved first wife died early, in 1909, and the younger of his two sons was killed in the First World War.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
