senator
Americannoun
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senators
plural
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Often Senator a member of a senate.
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Senator, (in the United States) a title of respect accorded a person who is or has been a member of the Senate.
noun
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(often capital) a member of a Senate or senate
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any legislator or statesman
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of senator
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English senatour, from Anglo-French, from Latin senātor, equivalent to sen(ātus) “council of elders” + -ātor noun suffix; see senate, -ator
Explanation
A senator is a person who works in the government. In the United States, senators are elected by voters to represent them in a state or federal senate. Each state in the US elects two senators who serve six-year terms in Washington, DC, where they pass laws and vote on policies. Other countries have senators as well, either elected or appointed. The word senator has been used in English since around 1200, from the Latin word, senex, or "old man." This is especially appropriate when you know that men have far outnumbered women in the US senate and that the first female senator wasn't elected until 1932.
Vocabulary lists containing senator
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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:
Michelle Bolsonaro, Jair’s wife, was elected senator for Brasília with a record number of votes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is Jair Bolsonaro's eldest son and has been serving as a senator since 2019.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
On Saturday, Trump is expected to hold a rally in Ohio in an effort to help that state’s junior Republican senator, Jon Husted, who is also in a toss-up race.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
“You would be like, ‘Oh, there’s this senator walking around,’ and we would get a picture with them,” one engineer recalled.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Out of a hundred and fifty Freedom Writers, I have been chosen to speak in front of Barbara Boxer, our senator!
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
While the presidential election is in the spotlight, Brazil's nearly 160 million registered voters are also electing lawmakers, governors, and some senators.
From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 2026
Republican and Democratic senators introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act to speed up energy project permitting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Not that the easily impressed senators, eager to exculpate a favored man, took note of the irony.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Candidates or senators who willingly falsify financial disclosures can be fined up to $50,000 or prosecuted for making a false statement to the government, a felony.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
Percy didn’t notice they’d reached the city limits until the senators in front of him started slowing down.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
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.
