seaman
noun
a person skilled in seamanship.
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seaman
1 American
[see-muhn]
/ ˈsi mən /
noun
-
seamen
plural
-
a person skilled in seamanship.
-
a person whose trade or occupation is assisting in the handling, sailing, and navigating of a ship during a voyage, especially one below the rank of officer; sailor.
-
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. an enlisted person ranking below petty officer.
Seaman
2
American
[see-muhn]
/ ˈsi mən /
noun
seaman
British
/ ˈsiːmən /
noun
-
a rating trained in seamanship as opposed to electrical engineering, etc
-
a man who serves as a sailor
-
a person skilled in seamanship
Synonym Usage
See sailor.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of seaman
First recorded before 900; Middle English seeman, Old English sǣmann. See sea, man
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.
See Examples For:
A family member told media outlets that his brother was an experienced seaman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
"We don't have enough water on board right now. We got food a few days back," said one Indian seaman stuck in a small refuelling boat off Iraq, within sight of the Iranian shore.
From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026
All told, 89 merchant vessels and more than 2,700 Allied seaman perished in the Arctic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
Dougie Shelley joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17, serving as a seaman gunner, and said earlier this year: "There is not many of us left."
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2025
By then, Ona had made plans to marry John Staines, a free black man and merchant seaman.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
In 1945, MI5 opened a letter Hobsbawm wrote to his first wife, Muriel Seaman.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
He began supporting Arsenal at the age of 10 when his uncle bought him a set of fridge magnets with the images of Gunners stars including Sylvain Wiltord, David Seaman, Sol Campbell, and Thierry Henry.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
That impressed me about Alex straight away, but what really stood out was how he performed when he came into the first team after David Seaman got injured in January.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
By the end of October, Seaman had a pretty good idea of how Kimwolf was sneaking onto Ipidea’s networks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
When the landing took place, Seaman Stephanides would stand in the front of the boat.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
But the FAA expressly excludes from arbitration “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
The Journal spoke to more than a dozen seamen held in the gulf, who described deteriorating conditions tipping into a humanitarian crisis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
In 2025 the number had ballooned to 410, with 6,223 merchant seamen falling victim.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2026
The researchers have estimated that the proportion of lung cancers related to onboard asbestos exposure were of the order of 27 per cent in Australian seamen and 12 per cent in British seamen.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2023
They were there to see the captain and inspect the hold; common seamen did not concern them, and few men looked as common as Davos.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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