mercenary

American  

[mur-suh-ner-ee] / ˈmɜr səˌnɛr i /

adjective

1. working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal.

   Synonyms:

   covetous, avaricious, acquisitive, grasping

   Antonyms:

   unselfish, idealistic, altruistic

2. hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization, etc.

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noun

• mercenaries
  plural

1. a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.

2. any hireling.

mercenary British  

/ ˈmɜːsɪnərɪ, -sɪnrɪ /

adjective

1. influenced by greed or desire for gain

2. of or relating to a mercenary or mercenaries

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noun

1. a man hired to fight for a foreign army, etc

2. rare any person who works solely for pay

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• mercenariness
  noun
• unmercenariness
  noun
• nonmercenary
  adjective
• unmercenary
  adjective
• mercenarily
  adverb
• unmercenarily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mercenaries
  plural

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”; cf. merchant) + -ārius -ary

Explanation

You might not want to call a mercenary a "hireling" to his face, but a mercenary is, after all, a soldier who gets paid to fight where needed, sometimes taking a heroic stand and other times just wanting payment for fighting. The word mercenary comes from the Latin mercēnārius, "hireling," which defines someone who will do anything in exchange for money. In history, a mercenary was often a fighter who followed the next paycheck, but in recent decades it's also been used for fighters who pursue a good cause in areas where soldiers are in short supply. A synonym for mercenary is "soldier of fortune," and this phrase sometimes glorifies the mercenary, turning the meaning of "fortune" from "cash" to "luck in battle."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mercenary mercenaries

Xenophon became in essence a mercenary lord, somewhat like the condottieri of Renaissance Italy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

It’s just we need wiser, smarter, better leaders, who are, frankly, less mercenary.

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026

Most fighters in the Africa Corps formerly belonged to the Russian mercenary Wagner group, which was active in the continent, hired by local governments to help curb insurgencies.

From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026

Russia's mercenary Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Malian forces against jihadists since 2021, ended its involvement in June 2025.

From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026

This man, as I said, having been named by the Syracusans commander of their armies, immediately realized that mercenary forces were useless, since their condottieri were men like our Italian condottieri.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

The corsairs, sometimes defining themselves as a naval mujahideen, also acted as mercenaries or proxies.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

Their seasoned troops, reinforced by Hessian mercenaries, faced an amateurish and poorly provisioned army of colonials.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

In recent years, a United Nations peacekeeping mission, Rwandan troops and Russian mercenaries from the notorious Wagner group have helped to improve the Central African Republic's security situation.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

Mali imported Russia’s Wagner mercenaries in 2022, in a failed attempt to swiftly suffocate the local Islamist insurgency that has since emerged as al Qaeda’s most successful and resilient offshoot.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

They would need mercenaries, so officers recruited men from militias made up of squatters from Kentucky.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Related Words

• acquisitive
• selfish
• unscrupulous