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As in, I want to say veterans/old hats at doing something instead of beginners at doing something.

Edit: Thank you for all the responses. I wasn't looking to imply skill, so I think 経験者 is the word I am looking for, but I learned a lot of other great words through the responses.

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  • 2
    This is a pretty uncommon choice, and not really "the opposite" 初心者, so probably not a great answer, but I really like the word 老練 (which explicitly has the "old" nuance to it, so don't use it for someone young). :-)
    – Darius Jahandarie
    Nov 3, 2015 at 18:17

7 Answers 7

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The word I hear most common for this is: ベテラン.

The second one: 経験者{けいけんしゃ}.

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17

I think it's [熟練者]{じゅくれんしゃ}...

Source

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  • I'd never heard that word before, so thank you. Though I think for what I was trying to get at, 経験者 is most appropriate.
    – Crowbeak
    Nov 4, 2015 at 12:50
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    Oh, in that case, I think you should accept macraf's answer.
    – chocolate ♦
    Nov 4, 2015 at 16:37
  • I will change it because there seems to be a small consensus that I should; however, I just want it stated for the record that I chose this one because it seemed the best answer to the question I actually asked. I was thinking of future searchers.
    – Crowbeak
    Nov 7, 2015 at 1:36
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This depends on context. At this point I would say macraf's answer (particularly 経験者) is the best (at least in my findings), but if we are indeed talking about skill involved (IE, you can rank someone, like in a game)　中級者 and 上級者 must also be considered.

Again, considering the context (perhaps you can give a bit more?) none of these may sound natural.

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  • 経験者 sounds like what I was looking for... experience, rather than indication of skill. Thank you, though, those are also excellent words to know.
    – Crowbeak
    Nov 4, 2015 at 12:48
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Again, depending on context, other possible terms include 玄人【くろうと】 and 専門家【せんもんか】.

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    OP may be interested to know that 玄人 is also more obviously an antonym of 素人【しろうと】.
    – senshin
    Nov 3, 2015 at 21:52
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If you are just looking to say someone who is very good at certain thing, then how about 達人【たつじん】? I hear that often.

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4

You guys are all correct! :)

I would use 経験者（けいけんしゃ）. It really depends on the context. I'll list the ones that weren't in this thread.

  • エキスパート（expert in katakana has the same meaning as in English）
  • プロ（professional）
  • 腕利き（うできき）
  • カリスマ（someone who is really good that he/she is almost revered.）

As you might know, a lot of English words are borrowed today, so it might be useful to know these words.

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People also use プロ quite widely. I once tried to ask a host family if I could say 素人 and 玄人, and my host mother laughed and told me that nobody used 玄人 - only プロ。

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