The term 'FIRST WORD, OFTEN' can refer to the first word of a sentence, which is often a verb. This is a common grammatical structure in English and other languages. The crossword solutions for this term are MAMA (4 letters) and THE (3 letters). 'MAMA' is a term of endearment used by children to refer to their mother, while 'the' is an article used to indicate a specific person, place, thing, or idea.