sensei
/ˈsɛnseɪ/noun
sensei is spelled S-E-N-S-E-I: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sensei means “A martial arts instructor; especially one for a Japanese martial art” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sensei is senseis.
How many letters and syllables are in sensei?
| Letters | 6: S-E-N-S-E-I |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is sensei?
Sensei appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sensei?
- /ˈsɛnseɪ/
Sensei has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-sensei.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sensei
- senseis plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sensei mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A martial arts instructor; especially one for a Japanese martial art.
- 2
A Japanese (language) teacher (sometimes used as a suffix attached to the name of a teacher, principally in translations from Japanese).
- 3
A teacher, guide or mentor, in the context of Japan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sensei in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense martial arts instructor:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sensei come 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).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).