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In Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an old seaman tells of how, by shooting a friendly albatross, he had brought storms and disaster to his ship, and how as punishment his shipmates hung the great seabird around the mariner's neck and made him wear it until it rotted. The word mariner has occasionally been used to mean simply "explorer", as in the famous Mariner spaceflights in the 1960s and '70s, the first to fly close to Mars, Venus, and Mercury.
Examples of mariner in a Sentence
the ancient Phoenicians were outstanding mariners who explored and colonized much of the eastern Mediterranean
Recent Examples on the Web
At the same time, a backlog of 18,000 merchant mariner credentials has built up, delaying the certification of workers essential to maritime commerce. —
Nicole Sganga, CBS News, 23 Apr. 2026 Danielson remembers Lind, an affable old mariner then in his seventies, complimenting them on their docking skills, and introducing himself as the owner of the Robert Gray, a 125-foot Army Corps of Engineers research vessel built in 1936. —Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone, 23 Apr. 2026 The reports of whale sightings will come from mariners and the public, lawmakers said. —Caelyn Pender, Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2026 There are about 2,000 ships and 20,000 mariners still stranded near the strait. —Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 22 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for mariner
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Nicole Sganga, CBS News, 23 Apr. 2026 Danielson remembers Lind, an affable old mariner then in his seventies, complimenting them on their docking skills, and introducing himself as the owner of the Robert Gray, a 125-foot Army Corps of Engineers research vessel built in 1936. —Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone, 23 Apr. 2026 The reports of whale sightings will come from mariners and the public, lawmakers said. —Caelyn Pender, Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2026 There are about 2,000 ships and 20,000 mariners still stranded near the strait. —Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 22 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for mariner
Cite this Entry
“Mariner.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.grautoblog.com/dictionary/mariner. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
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mariner
noun
mar·i·ner ˈmar-ə-nər 
: one who navigates or assists in navigating a ship : sailor
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