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

Instead, the town has been put under military quarantine, occupied by the same foolhardy industrial complex that started this whole mess in the first place. —Alison Herman, Variety, 27 Nov. 2025

His language points to a rigorous revisiting of why refugee status was granted in the first place. —Arkansas Online, 26 Nov. 2025

Additionally, the researchers noted that early signs of Parkinson’s, including sleep disturbances, might have led some individuals to be diagnosed with apnea in the first place. —Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 26 Nov. 2025

This may actually track, since astronomers still aren’t entirely certain how lenticular galaxies form in the first place. —Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 26 Nov. 2025

Rhymes for in the first place

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