The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - foremostadj.

1) first, primary, prime, leading, pre-eminent, supreme; prominent, notable, noteworthy, noted, chief, paramount, main, best, superior: She is one of the foremost eye surgeons in her country. --adv. 2) first, firstly, primarily, primarily, in (the) first place, before anything else: First and foremost, we must consider the matter of safety.