mariner

[mar-uh-ner]

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.

Mariner

¹

/ 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

mariner

²

/ ˈmærɪnə /

noun

1. a formal or literary word for seaman

Word History and Origins

Origin of Mariner¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Mariner¹

C13: from Anglo-French, ultimately from Latin marīnus _marine

Synonym Study

See sailor.

Example Sentences

Lynch said Hanwha could also help address another obstacle to expanding America’s commercial shipping fleet: a shortage of merchant mariners.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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.

Read more on BBC

Some fans are still left with questions as to why the competition has turned official, with one claiming on Reddit that “padres and mariners fans literally give no s— about each other.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The next two hours would be a race against time and Mother Nature as conditions on the lake rapidly deteriorated, faster than many locals and longtime mariners had ever seen.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sal Mercogliano, a maritime historian and former merchant mariner, said that the silence the sailors must have heard in those moments is "the worst sound you ever hear" on a ship.

Read more on BBC

When To Use

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.