sensei
French, noun/sɛn.sej/
sensei is spelled S-E-N-S-E-I (6 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written French, the 34,445th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Sensei is a French masculine noun meaning “sensei (martial arts instructor)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Maître d’une discipline japonaise comme l’art martial, l’ikebana, le zen, la cérémonie du thé, etc”.
What does sensei mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinesensei (martial arts instructor)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Maître d’une discipline japonaise comme l’art martial, l’ikebana, le zen, la cérémonie du thé, etc.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of sensei
- senseis plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce sensei?
- /sɛn.sej/
- \sɛn.sɛj\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to sensei
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is sensei in French?
sensei appears about once in every 1 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).