🥇 The best 🧑 Yourself

number one

50 7.6

Putting your own needs or interests before those of other people

noun
/ˈnʌmbər wʌn/

Informal

: uno mismo

My number one priority is to take care of myself first.

Examples

All right, three things number one, be your authentic self.
When it comes to your well-being, your number one concern should be your health.
So that is my number one rule for myself.
Ask yourself, number one, what just happened here?
OK, number one, take a break, step back.
My friends and my family, it's number one for me.

Money Fight (2021)
Always looking out for number one, hmm?

House of the Rising Sun (2011)
So number one, I like to collect good people.
You know, I think that number one is, is to be selfish.
To me, that makes me feel like I'm number one.

Academic text (2004)

Synonyms

yourself

vsnumber one

∞ 1.0

To show that the person you speak to did something alone or is responsible

puts personal needs and interests above others

ownself

vsnumber one

9.9

A person does something alone to show emphasis

shows putting own interests before others rather than just emphasis

Antonyms

selfless

72 3.2

Caring more about other people's needs than your own

How Selfish

egotist

Offensive

4 6.8

number one

Informal

50 7.6

considerate

68 2.5

altruist

3 6.7

Surface Forms

number one singular

number ones plural

Morphology

number + one

The meaning 'the most important person/priority' is directly derivable from combining 'number' (a rank) with 'one' (first), so the sense of being 'first' or 'top priority' is transparent. The pragmatic extension to refer to 'yourself' or to putting your own interests first is a natural, cross-linguistically common extension of 'being number one', so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will likely infer the meaning.

Etymology

Number one used to mean 'yourself' comes from the idea of putting yourself at the top of a list of priorities. So saying number one means choosing 'yourself' or putting your own needs first.