as in originally
in the beginning
firstly, gather all the ingredients together
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Recent Examples of firstly
As Cao and his colleagues note, however, there is something strange about the population of hypervelocity stars; firstly, their speeds max out at around 435 miles per second, even though our calculations suggest this should be only their average velocity.
—
Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2025
Diego Simeone could spring some surprises with his line-up, firstly by standing by goalkeeper Juan Musso despite question marks over his performance in the first leg.
—Sam Leveridge, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Its detection means that, firstly, JADES-GS-z13-1-LA produced enough high-energy radiation to excite its neutral hydrogen, and secondly that there was little neutral hydrogen between the galaxy and Earth to block the Lyman-α photons from reaching us in the present.
—Paul Du Quenoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2025
Now, the Democratic Party’s institutional failure to focus firstly on the economic security of working families has had epic consequences.
—John Samuelsen, New York Daily News, 11 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for firstly
Ron Estes, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2025
Diego Simeone could spring some surprises with his line-up, firstly by standing by goalkeeper Juan Musso despite question marks over his performance in the first leg.
—Sam Leveridge, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Its detection means that, firstly, JADES-GS-z13-1-LA produced enough high-energy radiation to excite its neutral hydrogen, and secondly that there was little neutral hydrogen between the galaxy and Earth to block the Lyman-α photons from reaching us in the present.
—Paul Du Quenoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2025
Now, the Democratic Party’s institutional failure to focus firstly on the economic security of working families has had epic consequences.
—John Samuelsen, New York Daily News, 11 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for firstly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for firstly
Adverb
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The producers, who originally found Ozark creator Bill Dubuque through a cold query, will launch their worldwide talent search through Stage 32’s platform, featuring over 1.3 million members.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
28 July 2025
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Considering this was originally streamed on Netflix, having Nocturne’s first season available on Blu-ray only helps to show just how good the animation for this series really is.—
Ollie Barder,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
Adverb
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The video was initially posted on Facebook on July 27.—
Kevin Grasha,
The Enquirer,
2 Aug. 2025
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For the Forest case, the league agreed to pay the firm £1.1m, but that was reduced to £985,000 because Linklaters did not need to put in quite as many hours as initially estimated.—
Matt Slater,
New York Times,
2 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Firstly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/firstly. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
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