in the first place

idiom

1

—used at the end of a sentence to indicate what was true or what should have been done at the beginning of a situation

We should never have gone there in the first place.

I didn't care much for the job in the first place.

2

—used when listing the most important parts of something or the most important reasons for something

I'm not going to tell you because, in the first place, it's none of your business, and in the second place, you would tell everyone else.

Examples of in the first place in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Also, double-check to see if it’s recommended to have a car seat in your two-door car in the first place. —Keenan Thompson, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025

Meanwhile, many people in my cohort of 10- and 20-year attendees are facing a conundrum similar to mine; lots of those Reddit threads on reunions are focused on the question of whether to attend in the first place. —Jordan Michelman, The Atlantic, 4 Sep. 2025

But the authors themselves wrote in the study that their findings are correlations and may be influenced by participants’ personal issues or their reasons for taking antidepressants in the first place. —Kristen Rogers, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2025

But what might've turned them against each other in the first place? —Jack Irvin, PEOPLE, 4 Sep. 2025

Rhymes for in the first place

• aromatase
• hydrogenase
• nitrogenase
• oligoclase
• oxygenase
• plagioclase
• polymerase
• streptokinase
• triphosphatase
• abase
• airspace
• apace