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first officer

American

noun

first mate.
copilot.

first officer British

noun

another name for first mate
the member of an aircraft crew who is second in command to the captain

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

The captain and his first officer were taken into police custody in early October before returning to sea.

From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026

She knelt in front of the first officer she saw, told him she’d fled the colectivos, and pleaded for a chance to seek asylum.

From Slate • Jan. 15, 2026

On the first two legs, he and first officer Eric Tellman noticed a dirty sock-like smell—an indicator of a fume event—spreading through the Airbus A319 just as they started their descent.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025

That indirectly-reported exchange sparked intense speculation about the role of the two pilots, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his first officer Clive Kunder, who was flying the plane at the time.

From BBC • Nov. 7, 2025

Sitting next to Caviedes was his first officer, Mauricio Klotz, and in the flight recorder, there are long stretches of nothing but rustling and engine noise.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023