In the United States, it refers to the three lowest ranks of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard.

The Royal Australian Navy features one seaman rank, which is split into two distinct classes.

[5] It is equivalent to OR1 in NATO and is a grade A3 in the pay rules of the Federal Ministry of Defence.

In Imperial Russia the most junior naval rank was "seaman 2nd class" (матрос 2-й статьи; matros vtoroi stati).

Estonia (Estonian: mаdrus) and Latvia (Latvian: mаtrozis) use closely related loanwords.

The Russian Federation inherited the term in 1991, as did several other former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Belarus, with Bulgaria using the same word and the same Cyrillic orthography.

The actual title and insignia for an E-3 varies based on the job rating to which the member will ultimately be assigned.

However, sailors with the pay grade of E-2 or E-3 are permitted to wear silver-anodized collar devices on their service uniforms.