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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
Dow also said the safest way to make it out of a channel is to follow the markers, which experienced mariners know to look for.
—
David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 11 June 2026
At sea, celestial navigation, which came into its own in the late 1700s, requires algorithms to crunch the inputs from a sextant that allows mariners to determine their position on the surface of a sphere.
—Scott Neuman, NPR, 11 June 2026
Visitors can explore intact shipyard buildings, interactive exhibits and displays highlighting Indigenous and Black mariners.
—Usa Today Network, USA Today, 10 June 2026
The Houthis made a similar threat during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and killed at least nine mariners and sank four ships in over 100 attacks, often targeting vessels with tangential or no ties to Israel.
—Jon Gambrell, Chicago Tribune, 8 June 2026
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David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 11 June 2026
At sea, celestial navigation, which came into its own in the late 1700s, requires algorithms to crunch the inputs from a sextant that allows mariners to determine their position on the surface of a sphere.
—Scott Neuman, NPR, 11 June 2026
Visitors can explore intact shipyard buildings, interactive exhibits and displays highlighting Indigenous and Black mariners.
—Usa Today Network, USA Today, 10 June 2026
The Houthis made a similar threat during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and killed at least nine mariners and sank four ships in over 100 attacks, often targeting vessels with tangential or no ties to Israel.
—Jon Gambrell, Chicago Tribune, 8 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for mariner
Cite this Entry
“Mariner.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mariner. Accessed 16 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
mariner
noun
mar·i·ner
ˈmar-ə-nər 
: one who navigates or assists in navigating a ship : sailor
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