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salaryman

American  
[sal-uh-ree-man] / ˈsæl ə riˌmæn /

noun

  • salarymen
    plural
  1. (in Japan) a white-collar businessman.


salaryman British  
/ ˈsælərɪˌmæn /

noun

  1. (in Japan) an office worker

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of salaryman

1960–65; < Japanese < English salary + -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:

The diverse characters of the show - which include a salaryman, a migrant factory worker and a cryptocurrency scammer - are drawn from figures many South Koreans would find familiar.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2025

For Nakamura, the salaryman, the issue highlighted the deepening pain for single-income Japanese households such as his own.

From Reuters ● Dec. 22, 2022

At a ceremony at a local temple, he met Sachiko, a thirty-year-old woman with two young children, a salaryman husband who was never around, and an electric, curious mind.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 17, 2019

In Kristine Haruna Lee’s play, directed by Aya Ogawa and produced in association with Ma-Yi Theater Company, it haunts the thoughts of a teenage girl and a middle-aged salaryman.

From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2019

No self-respecting salaryman of the mid-2000s was without a BlackBerry, and the basic idea can trace its ancestry back at least as far as the hand-held personal digital assistants of the 1990s.

From Economist ● Feb. 1, 2017

In Japan, a country with a long-established hard-work culture, where so-called salarymen have notoriously supported the post-war economy with utter dedication to their employers, there is even a word for it: Karōshi.

From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2026

The noodles are a staple among construction and factory workers, salarymen, and students in search of inexpensive meals.

From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2024

In the morning, salarymen with their pressed white shirts and briefcases wait in line behind kids getting something to eat before school.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2021

This nook is steeped in Japanese culture and aesthetics, hearkening to salarymen downing drinks before staggering onto that train ride home.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2019

The only ones still standing were the mundanes, the salarymen who'd been just trying to get to their jobs.

From Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

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