# number one
## English
### Etymology

Piecewise doublet of numero uno.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (General Australian):(file)

### Adjective

number one (not comparable)
* (idiomatic) First; foremost; best, often used after its headword.
    Commuting to work is the number one reason to own a car.
    He is my enemy number one.
** 2024 July 8, Lotte Knudsen, quotee, “Road crashes: a silent killer”, in Delegation of the European Union to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva‎, archived from the original on 2024-07-10:Road safety is a daily tragedy that doesn’t seem to make the front pages even though it’s a number one killer. In some countries, it causes more deaths than small firearms, and in others, more than illnesses.
* (US, law enforcement) Black, African-American.

#### Translations
### Noun

number one (plural number ones)
* The most important person, the one who is in charge.
* Someone who is top of a ranking, who is ranked first.
** 1979, Robert Hazard (lyrics and music), “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, in She's So Unusual‎, performed by Cyndi Lauper, published 1983:The phone rings, in the middle of the night / My father yells "what you gonna do with your life" / Oh, daddy, dear, you know you're still number one / But girls, they wanna have fun / Oh, girls just wanna have...
** 2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport‎:Djokovic came through 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3 to end Nadal's reign as Wimbledon champion, before overtaking the Spaniard as world number one on Monday.
* Oneself, being considered foremost, as by an egoist.
** 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:No man should have more than two attachments—the first, to number one, and the second to the ladies; that's what I say—ha! ha!
* (childish, euphemistic) Urine; urination.
** 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:He might have got up, without the bell's sounding, to do his number one, or number two, in his great big white chamber-pot.
* (music) The single that has sold the most in a given period.
* (soccer) The main goalkeeper of a team, so-called because they wear the number 1 on the back of their kit.
** 2011 January 5, Jonathan Stevenson, “Arsenal 0 - 0 Man City”, in BBC‎:England number one Hart produced a magnificent moment to deny Van Persie once more just after the hour mark, leaping across his goal to fingertip the Dutchman's crashing 25-yard, top corner-bound drive away.
* (cricket) The batsman who opens the batting.
* A first lieutenant.
* (theater) A large town where theatrical performances may expect to achieve success.
* Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see number,‎ one.

#### Coordinate terms

* number two (especially regarding the urination sense), number three, number four, number five, number six, number seven, number eight, number nine, number ten, and so on

#### Derived terms

* do number one, go number one
* look out for number one
* number one with a bullet
* Christmas number one

#### Translations

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