Check if word is inside of list of tuples

I'm wondering how I can efficiently check whether a value is inside a given list of tuples. Say I have a list of: ``` ("the", 1) ("check", 1) ("brown, 2) ("gary", 5) ``` how can I check whether a given word is inside the list, ignoring the second value of the tuples? If it was just a word I could use ``` if "the" in wordlist: #... ``` but this will not work, is there something along the line this i can do? ``` if ("the", _) in wordlist: #... ```