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 • Feb. 25, 2026
Those glimpses of humanity had a way of rendering the mercenary atmosphere in the tent city incredibly disorienting—almost unreal.
From Slate • Feb. 23, 2026
And yet his approach to his craft is unusually earnest, devoid of the mystique that surrounds Kendrick Lamar or the mercenary commercial instincts of Drake, to name two of his peers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026
The CAR was one of the first African countries where Wagner, a Russian mercenary group, became active, providing security to Touadéra.
From BBC • Jan. 6, 2026
Fifteen feet below her pipe, a mercenary was clutching the horns of a gargoyle as he set about fastening his rope around its head.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
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.
