sensei.
A martial arts instructor; especially one for a Japanese martial art.
Meaning & usage
A martial arts instructor; especially one for a Japanese martial art.
A Japanese (language) teacher (sometimes used as a suffix attached to the name of a teacher, principally in translations from Japanese).
A teacher, guide or mentor, in the context of Japan.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Japanese 先生(せんせい) (sensei, “teacher; elder”), from Middle Chinese 先生 (MC sen sraeng, “master, elder”), from 先 (MC sen, “earlier, first”) + 生 (MC sraeng, “born”). Compare modern Mandarin 先生 (xiānshēng, “Mr.”). Doublet of sinseh, from Hokkien 先生 (sin-seⁿ).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.