number one

noun

1. oneself, especially one's own well-being or interests:

   to look out for number one.

2. a person, company, etc., that is first in rank, order, or prestige:

   Our team is number one.

3. urination: used especially by or with reference to children.

adjective

1. of the highest in quality, status, importance, etc.; first-rate:

   a number one performance.

2. first in rank, order, or prestige:

   the number one book on the bestseller list.

number one

noun

1. the first in a series or sequence
2. See myself, oneself
   an informal phrase for oneself myself

   to look after number one

3. informal.
   the most important person; leader, chief

   he's number one in the organization

4. informal.
   the bestselling pop record in any one week
5. euphemistic.
   the act or an instance of urination
6. a haircut in which the hair is cut very close to the head with an electric shaver

adjective

1. first in importance, urgency, quality, etc

   number one priority

2. informal.
   (of a pop record) having reached the top of the charts

Word History and Origins

Origin of number one¹

First recorded in 1830–40

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. make / do / go number one, Informal. to urinate: used especially by or with reference to children.

Example Sentences

We held the number one spot for three years straight before recently being overtaken by Bakersfield, California.

From Outside Online

The series was viewed by more than 70 million households within its first month on the streaming service, and landed on the platform’s number one spot in their top 10 rankings across the globe, from Brazil to Germany to the Philippines.

From Time

With jaw-droppingly steep canyon walls that plunge for over a mile to the churning Colorado River below, it would be easy to assume that falling is the number one cause of death in this storied national park.

From Outside Online

See for yourself why Feetures has become the number one running sock in America.

From Outside Online

Websites with more than 300 referring domains are much more likely to rank in the number one spot than, let’s say, a website with only 50 backlinks.

From Search Engine Watch

The musical promise of eternal youth sold to the tune of 5.5 million copies and five number-one singles.

From The Daily Beast

But after logging her eighth number-one single, Katy Perry might be the biggest pop star of her time.

From The Daily Beast

My husband in my number-one priority and I his; why would we want to change this so we can be slaves to a child?

From The Daily Beast

But the number-one thing rats want to be around is people, people who drop garbage on the ground.

From The Daily Beast

The voting portion of the contest ended yesterday, and I swept the number-one spot.

From The Daily Beast

What does a first-class A-number-one lawyer like Root care about facts if they ain't in his favor?

From Project Gutenberg

Roger hurried along with Astro to the number-one boat and climbed inside.

From Project Gutenberg

And she said these was A-Number-One beagles, being sure to get a rabbit if one was in the country.

From Project Gutenberg

You've got thirty tons of fuel—you want to find the compression ratio of the number-one firing-tube chamber—so what do you do?

From Project Gutenberg

Among them was his number-one boy, Kwong, who had served him faithfully for several years.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• champion
• winner