What it means

1. adjective ranking above all others
   “was first in her class”
2. adjective preceding all others in time or space or degree
   “the first house on the right”
3. adjective highest in pitch or chief among parts or voices or instruments or orchestra sections
   “first soprano”
4. adjective indicating the beginning unit in a series
5. adjective serving to begin
   “the beginning canto of the poem”
6. adjective serving to set in motion
   “the magazine's inaugural issue”
7. noun an honours degree of the highest class
8. noun the first element in a countable series
   “the first of the month”
9. noun the first or highest in an ordering or series
   “He wanted to be the first”
10. noun the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed at first of the bases in the infield (counting counterclockwise from home plate)
11. noun the lowest forward gear ratio in the gear box of a motor vehicle
12. noun the time at which something is supposed to begin
    “they got an early start”