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• mariner
  mariner

  noun

  a person who directs or assists in the navigation of a ship; sailor.
• Mariner
  Mariner

  noun

  any of a series of US space probes launched between 1962 and 1971 that sent back photographs and information concerning the surface of Mars and Venus and also studied interplanetary matter

mariner

American  

[mar-uh-ner] / ˈmær ə nər /

noun

1. a person who directs or assists in the navigation of a ship; sailor.

   Synonyms:

   seafarer

2. (initial capital letter) one of a series of U.S. space probes that obtained scientific information while flying by or orbiting around the planets Mars, Mercury, and Venus.

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Mariner ¹ British  

/ ˈmærɪnə /

noun

1. any of a series of US space probes launched between 1962 and 1971 that sent back photographs and information concerning the surface of Mars and Venus and also studied interplanetary matter

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mariner ² British  

/ ˈmærɪnə /

noun

1. a formal or literary word for seaman

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Usage

What does mariner mean? A mariner is a sailor, especially a professional one. The word sailor is used much more commonly than mariner, which often sounds formal or old-fashioned. Mariner is sometimes used as a more poetic word for sailor, much like its synonym seafarer. In literature, the word is associated with its use in the title of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 epic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is considered highly influential and a landmark of Romantic literature. It is in fact about a sailor. Mariner was also the name of a NASA program involving a series of probes (which were also each named Mariner along with a number) launched to gather information while orbiting Mars, Venus, and Mercury. The word also appears in the name of the Seattle Mariners baseball team—a reference to Seattle’s heritage as a port city. Example: The seaside pub was frequented by salty old mariners.

Related Words

See sailor.

Etymology

Origin of mariner

First recorded in 1250–1300 mariner for def. 1; mariner for def. 2 1960–65; Middle English, from Anglo-French; Old French marinier. See marine, -er ²

Explanation

A mariner is someone who works on a boat or ship. A lobsterman who works alone on a small boat is a mariner, and so is the captain of an enormous cargo ship. Mariner is a somewhat old-fashioned word for a sailor or seafarer, a person who spends most of their working life on some kind of ocean vessel. Today, you're more likely to read about mariners in an old book than to meet people who describes themselves this way. Mariner comes from the Latin word marinus, "of the sea," and its root, mare, "the sea."

Example Sentences

We meet the mariner as he stops a wedding guest on his way to the church, and “holds him with his glittering eye.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026

Once hunted extensively for turtle soup, its eggs as a delicacy and decorative shells, the ancient mariner saw its numbers plummet and has been listed as endangered since the 1980s.

From BBC • Oct. 10, 2025

The example of Francis Mackey, the Halifax mariner who was blamed for the disaster, is a reminder that emotionally charged finger-pointing in the aftermath of a catastrophe often finds the wrong lightning rod.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2025

Sawai plays Toda Mariko, a noblewoman who is a translator between Toranaga and an English mariner in "Shōgun."

From Salon • Jan. 6, 2025

“It’s your fault that this door is broken,” Dorian hissed at the deranged mariner.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole