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seaman

UK/ˈsiːmən/US/ˈsiːmən/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,480 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: seamen, seamans

A seaman is a sailor of the lower ranks. An able seaman, a merchant seaman, rated as a seaman.

It is a formal rank rather than a general word: able seaman and ordinary seaman are grades, and an officer is not a seaman. Many navies now use sailor as the general term, since seaman is both a rank and a word that assumes the crew is male.

Definitions of seaman

  1. 1nounseamanA sailor of the lower ranks.B2

    “He joined the navy as an ordinary seaman at the age of sixteen.”

seaman is a sailor.

Where it comes from

Old English saemann, sea plus man. The compound is a thousand years old.

  1. Old English

    sǣmann

  2. Middle English

    seeman

  3. English, today

    seaman

From Middle English seeman, seman, from Old English sǣmann. Cognate with stq Seemon (“seaman, sailor”), West Frisian seeman (“seaman, sailor”), Dutch zeeman (“seaman, sailor”), German Low German Seemann (“seaman, sailor”), German Seemann (“seaman, sailor”), Swedish sjöman (“seaman, sailor”), Norwegian sjømann (“seaman, sailor”). Equivalent to sea + man.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

seaman in the wild

  • Naval Sea Cadet Corps just above seaman recruit and below seaman; this rank was formerly known as seaman second class.

    Seaman apprentice

  • The current rank of seaman apprentice should not be confused with the rank of apprentice seaman which was the lowest Navy rank from 1904 to 1948.

    Seaman apprentice

  • The equivalent of the seaman is the matelot in French-speaking countries, and Matrose in German-speaking countries.

    Seaman (rank)

  • When it is used by NATO nations, leading seaman has the rank code of OR-4.

    Leading seaman

  • Able seaman is a military rank used in some navies.

    Able seaman (rank)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.