船員|せんいんsen'in[0]heiban (flat)
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- nounsailor; seaman; seafarer
- Synonym船乗りふなのりNeutralA colloquial word for someone who makes their living at sea; carries a romantic image of the seafaring life.
- Synonym水夫すいふNeutralAn old-fashioned word for a sailor, stressing the manual labor of the job; 「船員」 is the umbrella term for anyone working aboard a ship.
- Synonym船人ふなびとWrittenA literary term for a boatman or someone aboard a boat; archaic and rarely seen in modern usage.
- SynonymマドロスNeutralA loanword from Dutch for a sailor, with an exotic flavor — familiar from enka lyrics.
- Synonym海員かいいんWrittenA formal, written-style term for a seaman, typical of union language, as in 「海員組合」.
- Related乗組員のりくみいんNeutralCrew members of a ship or aircraft; covers both sailors and flight crews but not passengers.
- Antonym陸上勤務者NeutralA person who works on land, the opposite of a 「船員」 working aboard ship.
Use 「船員」 as the general term for a ship's crew, as in 「船員手帳」. Say 「船乗り」 in casual talk about seafarers, 「海員」 in formal or union contexts, 「水夫」 for old-style sailors, and 「乗組員」 when flight crew are included.
Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only


