mercenary
Americanadjective
-
working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal.
- Synonyms:
- covetous, avaricious, acquisitive, grasping
- Antonyms:
- unselfish, idealistic, altruistic
-
hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization, etc.
noun
plural
mercenaries-
a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.
-
any hireling.
adjective
-
influenced by greed or desire for gain
-
of or relating to a mercenary or mercenaries
noun
-
a man hired to fight for a foreign army, etc
-
rare any person who works solely for pay
Other Word Forms
- mercenarily adverb
- mercenariness noun
- nonmercenary adjective
- unmercenarily adverb
- unmercenariness noun
- unmercenary adjective
Etymology
Origin of mercenary
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mercenarie, from Latin mercēnnārius “working for pay, hired worker, mercenary,” perhaps from earlier mercēd(i)nārius (unrecorded), from mercēdin- (unrecorded), variant stem of mercēs “payment, wage” (akin to merx “goods”; merchant ) + -ārius -ary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday said investigations into "the circumstances that led to the recruitment of these young men into mercenary activities" were still ongoing.
From Barron's
Last November, the South African government said it had received distress calls from the group of men who had joined mercenary forces in the conflict.
From BBC
The source identified the security crew as Aleksander T., 34, and Maksim D., 40, adding that the latter was a former police officer who had worked for Russian mercenary group Wagner.
From Barron's
The men were aged 34 and 40, the source said, adding one of them is a former police officer who had worked for Wagner mercenary group.
From Barron's
The U.K. government has advised against nearly all travel to the Central African Republic, and Brown said he was warned about rebel fighters, bandits, poachers, Russian mercenaries, dengue fever and the Ebola virus.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
