first thing's first in English

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{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr"
      },
      "expansion": "first thing's first",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "first things first"
        }
      ],
      "attestations": [
        {
          "date": "20th c.",
          "references": []
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Uncommon spelling of first things first"
      ],
      "id": "en-first_thing's_first-en-phrase-6MPnit~0",
      "links": [
        [
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        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "uncommon"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first thing's first"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "phr"
      },
      "expansion": "first thing's first",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "first things first"
        }
      ],
      "attestations": [
        {
          "date": "20th c.",
          "references": []
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English uncommon forms",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Uncommon spelling of first things first"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "first things first",
          "first things first#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "uncommon"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first thing's first"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"first thing's first" meaning in English

Phrase