in the first place

Speech parts

1. in the first place - Adverb

2. in the first place - Phrase

Meaning

before now

of primary import

Source: WordNet

Synonyms

primarily originally to begin with in the beginning firstly first especially immediately mainly initially predominantly principally chiefly fundamentally foremost
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Antonyms

secondly lastly last in the end eventually finally
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Examples

If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers in the first place. George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it. Brian Kernighan

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. Frédéric Bastiat

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Eric Schmidt

When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place. Jared Leto

Remember where you came from, where you're going, and why you created this mess you got yourself into in the first place. Richard Bach

Words in the phrase

in the first place

Close letter words and terms

in the first flush of youth in the first instance in the first phase in the first row in the first stage in the fish tank