first-generation
Americanadjective
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being the first generation of a family to be born in a particular country.
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being a naturalized citizen of a particular country; immigrant.
the child of first-generation Americans.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Its first-generation iMacs, released in 1998, offered transparent shells in candy-like blue, green and more -- combining a pop of visual interest with a glimpse at the high tech workings within.
From Barron's • Mar. 29, 2026
“Even though I was first-generation and born in the U.S., we always had that sense of being Mexican,” he told The Times in 2016.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026
A first-generation college student of Haitian and Dominican descent, she took out loans for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, but it was her pursuit of a doctorate that really shot up her balance.
From Salon • Mar. 17, 2026
"Despite both athletes sharing similar racial backgrounds and first-generation immigrant experiences," Prof He says, "they have been cast as opposing archetypes in a narrative they didn't write".
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
In the first-generation hybrids, the individual heritable traits—tallness and shortness, or green and yellow seeds—did not blend at all.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
