first edition

noun

: the copies of a literary work first printed from the same type and issued at the same time

also : a single copy from a first edition

Examples of first edition in a Sentence

There were many errors in the book's first edition.

She owns a valuable first edition of Huckleberry Finn.

Recent Examples on the Web

Davis-Woodhall was speaking to media ahead of the first edition of the World Ultimate championships next month, a best-of-the-best event to close out the 2026 season. — Liam Tharme, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2026

The first edition of the book was self-published and then was picked up by the multilevel marketing company, Amway, helping propel it to The New York Times bestseller list. — Victoria Edel, PEOPLE, 2 Sep. 2026

From its first edition in 1952 to the current DSM-5-TR, the diagnostic manual has shifted alongside major changes in psychiatry’s understanding of mental illness. — Jessica Scheer, STAT, 2 Sep. 2026

The maps in today’s fantasy epics are distant cousins of the woodcut that illustrated the first edition of Utopia, and which imagined the faraway island. — Carline Tromp, The Dial, 18 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1542, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for first edition

• abolition
• acquisition
• admonition
• ammunition
• apparition
• apposition
• coalition
• competition
• composition
• definition
• deglutition
• demolition