How to Use sensei in a Sentence

sensei

noun
  • Sometimes the student has to one day show the sensei who the boss is.
    Joey Hayden, Dallas News, 19 Jan. 2020
  • Bennett seems as if he were born for the job as the world’s friendliest running sensei.
    Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 21 Nov. 2019
  • He's got a lot more to do this time around than be a jerk, as does Martin Kove, who reprises his role as the mean sensei.
    Star Tribune, 3 Sep. 2020
  • The 27-year-old doesn’t have to be the victory-teaching sensei anymore.
    Sean Collins, Dallas News, 11 Feb. 2021
  • Of course, Fitzpatrick was never far from the action, hovering near the edge of the field and close to Saban, the secondary sensei.
    Rainer Sabin, AL.com, 5 Nov. 2017
  • The phone call from my sensei guide confirmed that impression.
    Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 12 Mar. 2020
  • Salama is a full time karate sensei, or teacher, with his own dojo.
    NBC News, 23 Nov. 2019
  • It was run by Luis Ruiz, who remains Wasowicz’s sensei, or coach.
    New York Times, 16 July 2021
  • Like some sort of strategy sensei, Fehr and Carlson helped Beagle along and then released him into the world.
    Alex Prewitt, SI.com, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Everybody would mimic him—a karate kick or a Miyagi sensei thing.
    Alex Prewitt, SI.com, 1 May 2018
  • Ishiguro-sensei becomes a source of fascination; he is transformed from a researcher to the man who made his copy.
    Alex Mar, WIRED, 17 Oct. 2017
  • My sensei explained only by moving my hips back and keeping my arms straight would the nirvana of a wheelie be attained.
    Peter Rubin, WIRED, 22 Oct. 2012
  • Thornton should center the Sharks third line, serving as sensei to young linemates and helping to drive the second powerplay unit.
    Brian Ricks, The Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2019
  • Daniel, a Black kid raised in Newark in the eighties, does not need to learn karate in order to kick the asses of every single member of the Cobra Kai dojo, including the sensei.
    Carlos Greaves, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2021
  • Qi finally meets the old sensei, who fights on even after he's forced to send his underlings scurrying to safety, and the elder puts up a hell of a fight.
    John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 June 2017
  • Coming across a young boy getting bullied, Johnny fights off the attackers, who happen to be high school kids — and a sensei and his student are born.
    Joe Toreno, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2022
  • LaRusso is looped back into karate soon after hearing the news but has slightly lost his way in life without his sensei Mr. Miyagi.
    Chris Chavez, SI.com, 3 May 2018
  • Why my kendo experience will stick with me My sensei, a jovial middle-aged man who wore a puffer vest and Minion socks, became a gruff Kendo master once his white armor was laced up.
    Carly Mallenbaum, USA TODAY, 31 Dec. 2019
  • Use sensei instead of san for a teacher, doctor, or other type of professional.
    Sophie Friedman, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Feb. 2018
  • Eisenberg plays a man who is attacked on the street and enlists in a dojo — led by a charismatic and mysterious sensei (Nivola) — in an effort to learn how to defend himself.
    Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, 24 Oct. 2017
  • The idea is to be an honorable, nurturing sensei for your menagerie of weird little creatures – not just to teach them to fight like cybercocks but also to help them evolve onward to a more ennobled state.
    Mark Jacobson, Daily Intelligencer, 30 June 2017
  • The referee — a visiting sensei from Japan who has helped the Sao Paulo team train — isn’t wearing the elaborate gowns of traditional sumo referees.
    Jill Langlois, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2019
  • Daniel is now a car salesman and dedicated family man who finds his way back to the world of martial arts by reconnecting to the spirit of his sensei, Nariyoshi Miyagi (Pat Morita).
    Rosy Cordero, EW.com, 24 Aug. 2020
  • So, the man who had number one albums, platinum albums and Grammy awards and eventually sell 72 million albums, humbly sought out a trumpet sensei.
    Michael Sangiacomo, cleveland.com, 31 Oct. 2017
  • The curator then assigns the user 50 daily tasks - in a kind of gruesome sensei-student relationship.
    Amber Ferguson and Kyle Swenson, chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2017
  • Heeding one of their longtime friends, a skateboarding sensei and promoter, will Hawk’s buddies intervene and save Hawk from himself?
    Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Dambara named the business after Yoko Dambara, her late Japanese grandmother who was a master tea ceremony sensei in Tokyo.
    Linda Bladholm, miamiherald, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Instead, Johnny opens a dojo where he is destined to become the politically incorrect sensei to a group of outcast kids.
    Nina Metz, chicagotribune.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Priest reaches out to boss/sensei Scatter (Michael K. Williams) to increase product but the elder criminal balks, not wanting to attract police interest.
    Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 12 June 2018
  • Having drafted the prototype, the sensei retreated to his chambers; Laning’s protégé Charles Muntz took over much of the actual programming.
    Stephen Witt, WIRED, 24 June 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sensei.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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