Meaning & use
crewman
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Meaning
nouncountable
a man who works as one of the people operating a boat, aircraft, or spacecraft.
Grammar: Countable: one crewman, two crewmen; the irregular plural changes -man to -men.
Patterns
- a crewman on a ship
- a crewman aboard an aircraft
The coast guard rescued a crewman from the sinking fishing boat.
One crewman was injured when the plane hit severe turbulence.
Every crewman on the vessel must attend the safety drill.
Word forms
| plural | crewmen |
|---|
Common combinations
- a crewman aboard
- A crewman aboard the ferry spotted the fire first.
- a crewman on a ship
- He worked as a crewman on a cargo ship for three years.
- an injured crewman
- An injured crewman was airlifted to the hospital.
- a crewman's duties
- A crewman's duties include checking the life jackets.
Synonyms and how they differ
- crew member
- The neutral term for any person in a crew; use it when you do not know the person's gender or want to include everyone.
- sailor
- Specifically a person who works on a ship, especially in a navy; crewman also covers aircraft and spacecraft.
- hand
- Informal for a worker on a boat or farm; it sounds less official than crewman.
Word family
Commonly confused: crewman or crewmate?
crewman vs crewmate
A crewmate is someone who works in the same crew as you; a crewman is simply any male member of a crew.
Practice
The lifeboat picked up an injured ___ from the burning tanker.
Choose one answer.
"An injured" needs one singular person, so the singular crewman fits. "Crewmen" is plural and cannot follow "an"; "crews" means whole groups and "crew's" is possessive, so neither fits here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “crewman”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.