senator
Americannoun
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senators
plural
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Often Senator a member of a senate.
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Senator, (in the United States) a title of respect accorded a person who is or has been a member of the Senate.
noun
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(often capital) a member of a Senate or senate
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any legislator or statesman
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of senator
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English senatour, from Anglo-French, from Latin senātor, equivalent to sen(ātus) “council of elders” + -ātor noun suffix; see senate, -ator
Explanation
A senator is a person who works in the government. In the United States, senators are elected by voters to represent them in a state or federal senate. Each state in the US elects two senators who serve six-year terms in Washington, DC, where they pass laws and vote on policies. Other countries have senators as well, either elected or appointed. The word senator has been used in English since around 1200, from the Latin word, senex, or "old man." This is especially appropriate when you know that men have far outnumbered women in the US senate and that the first female senator wasn't elected until 1932.
Vocabulary lists containing senator
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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El-Sayed’s defensiveness, as he runs to be the nation’s first Muslim senator, is understandable.
From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026
PETERSBURG, Alaska—For months, the tale of “Decoy Dan”—a local retired teacher running against a U.S. senator who shares his name—drew chuckles and eye rolls across this remote fishing village ringed by mountains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
The former lieutenant governor of Ohio was appointed to be the state’s junior U.S. senator in 2025, after JD Vance became vice president.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
On Wednesday night, she joined thousands of people just outside Atlanta for a rally to cheer on the senator as former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democrats.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Simpson had spent eighteen years in the Senate, including ten as the Republican whip, the second-ranking senator in his party.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
“The senators elected this November — and likely the president elected in 2028 — will be the leaders who determine what to do about Social Security’s financing gap.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
She is consistently ranked as one of the most bipartisan senators and has often broken with Mr. Trump.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The senators also say they are "deeply concerned" by reports of disruptions or "glitches" affecting intelligence-sharing and threat-warning capabilities relied upon by personnel operating in Ukraine.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
They include a 2019 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, with that state’s attorney general to discuss opioid litigation and a 2021 visit with unnamed U.S. senators in North Carolina.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
But many senators were opposed to the treaty as written, and American isolationists wanted to keep the United States out of world affairs.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
