a person who directs or assists in the navigation of a ship; sailor.
(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.
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.
See sailor.
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
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."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Martino, the merchant mariner, said the influx of newcomers has benefited the city in many ways, with food only one example.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 20, 2026
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
The discovery of this boat now changes our entire understanding of ancient mariner abilities.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2024
“The discovery of this boat now changes our entire understanding of ancient mariner navigational skills,” Dr. Sharvit said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
It peered at the boy with one hand up—like a lost mariner searching for land—and exclaimed, “Ah-hah! Whom have we here, what?”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
"Rest in peace, Alex. Once a Mariner, always a Mariner."
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Raleigh opted to leave his fellow Mariner hanging, awkwardly, right there on TV.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
By Jacob Soboroff Mariner Books: 272 pages, $30 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2026
Janney banking analyst Christopher Mariner told MarketWatch that third-party outsourcing to check loan collateral is normal in the industry but lenders must still manage their vendors.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2025
We had discovered with Mariner 9 that characteristic changes in the bright and dark patterns on the Martian surface occur during times of high winds.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions 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.
